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Noted Speeches of 

DANIEL WEBSTER 

HENRY CLAY JOHN C. CALHOUN 



g^meriian Higtorp in Hiterature 

NOTED SPEECHES 

OF 

DANIEL WEBSTER 

HENRY CLAY 
JOHN C. CALHOUN 

EDITED WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 

BY 

LILIAN MARIE BRIGGS 

Assistant in the New York Public Library 



WITH PORTRAITS 



New York 
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 

1912 



Copyright, 1912, by 

MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 

New York 






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•f X 



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. CONTENTS 

i; PAGE 

Biographical Sketch — Webster . . 3 

Bunker Hill Monument Address . . 7 

Reply to Hayne 41 

On the Constitution and the Union . 83 

Biographical Sketch — Calhoun . . 123 

On the Reception of Abolition Peti- 
tions 126 

On the Slavery Question .... 139 

Biographical Sketcfi — Clay . . .175 

The Compromise of 1850 178 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Daniel Webster . . Facing page 4 
John C. Calhoun . . . " "124 
Henry Clay . . . . " "176 



/ 



DANIEL WEBSTER 



(C 



Liberty and Union, 

now and forever, 

one and inseparable." 



DANIEL WEBSTER 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

Daniel Webster was born in the town of Sal- 
isbury, New Hampshire, January i8, 1782 — the 
last year of the Revolutionary War. 

His early years brought him little opportunity 
for schooling. He attended the small district 
schools in the winter, more than his brothers, be- 
cause he was considered too delicate for the farm 
work, and showed a great eagerness for reading 
and learning. Daniel had few books, and so 
read them over and over until he knew them by 
heart. No doubt the teaching of his experienced 
father, and his loving, ambitious mother formed 
the foundation for his education. Part of his 
time was spent in rambles in the woods and 
fields, and along the river, where he learned to 
love nature. In the long winter evenings Dan- 
iePs father told the children stories of the Revo- 
lution, the traditions of the Indian wars, and of 
the hardships of pioneer life. 

When Daniel was fourteen he was sent to Exe- 
ter Academy, where he remained only a few 

3 



4 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

months, proving, however, to be the best scholar 
in his class. Then for a short time he studied 
with Dr. Samuel Wood, a minister- in an adjoin- 
ing town. In August, 1797, before he was six- 
teen, he entered Dartmouth College, showing 
himself to be a thoroughly genial companion and 
a kind, affectionate friend. After the second 
year he decided to teach school in the winter 
to help pay his own college expenses, in order 
that his brother Ezekiel might also prepare 
himself for college. For one year he edited a 
small weekly paper to add to his meager in- 
come. 

Webster's first public speech was a Fourth-of- 
July oration given during his third year in college 
at the request of the citizens of Hanover. Upon 
leaving college in 1801 he commenced the study 
of law, but soon abandoned it and obtained a 
school at Fryeburg, Maine; and to enable him 
to save all of his salary for his brother, who had 
just entered Dartmouth, he copied deeds to earn 
money for his personal expenses. The following 
year he resumed the study of law and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in Boston in 1805. Daniel 
wished to be near his father, so went to Bos- 
cawen, a neighboring village of Salisbury, to com- 
mence the practice of his chosen profession. His 
noble, generous father heard his first speech at 
the bar, but died In 1806. The next year Web- 





DANIEL WEBSTER 

From an old Print 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 5 

ster removed to Portsmouth, where he took a 
prominent place among lawyers, having a large 
though not very lucrative practice. 

In 1 8 12 he was elected to Congress from New 
Hampshire and reelected for the second term. 
In i8i6 he withdrew from active public service 
and removed to Boston, to again devote himself 
to his profession. He first distinguished himself 
in the celebrated Dartmouth College case. But 
It was not alone his services to his country which 
made him conspicuous in all New England; in 
December, 1820, at the commemoration of the 
two hundredth anniversary of the landing of the 
pilgrims, he delivered his famous *' Plymouth 
Oration.'* Such was his popularity that in 1822 
he was chosen Congressman from Massachusetts, 
remaining in the House until 182.8..' 

In 1825 his address delivered at the laying of 
the corner-stone of Bunker Hill monument made 
him the leading orator of America. Another of 
his noted addresses is the eulogy upon Adams and 
Jefferson, who died within a few hours of each 
other, on July 4, 1826. 

Mr. Webster was United States Senator from 
1828 to 1841, and again from 1845 to 1850. 
His wonderful speech of January 26, 1830, " Re- 
ply to Hayne," is probably where his fame rests; 
though his last noted speech " On the Consti- 
tution and the Union," commonly called the 



6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

*' March the Seventh " speech, delivered in the 
Senate, March 7, 1850, was quite as great. 

The eminent statesman left Washington In 
1852, and retired to his quiet home In Marsh- 
field, where he died October 24, of the same 
year. 



BUNKER HILL MONUMENT ADDRESS 

Delivered at the Laying of the Corner- 
stone OF THE Bunker Hill Monument at 
Charlestown, Mass., June 17, 1825. 

This uncounted multitude before me and 
around me proves the feeling which the occasion 
has excited. These thousands of human faces, 
glowing with sympathy and joy, and from the im- 
pulses of a common gratitude turned reverently 
to Heaven in this spacious temple of the firma- 
ment, proclaim that the day, the place, and the 
purpose of our assembling have made a deep im- 
pression on our hearts. 

If, indeed, there be anything in local associa- 
tion fit to affect the mind of man, we need not 
strive to repress the emotions which agitate us 
here. We are among the sepulchers of our fa- 
thers. We are on ground distinguished by their 
valor, their constancy, and the shedding of their 
blood. We are here, not to fix an uncertain date 
in our annals, nor to draw into notice an obscure 
and unknown spot. If our humble purpose had 
never been conceived, if we ourselves had 

7 



8 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

never been born, the 17th of June, 1775, would 
have been a day on which all subsequent history 
would have poured its light, and the eminence 
where we stand a point of attraction to the eyes 
of successive generations. But we are Ameri- 
cans. We live in what may be called the early 
age of this great continent ; and we know that our 
posterity, through all time, are here to enjoy and 
suffer the allotments of humanity. We see be- 
fore us a probable train of great events; we know 
that our own fortunes have been happily cast; 
and it Is natural, therefore, that we should be 
moved by the contemplation of occurrences which 
have guided our destiny before many of us were 
born, and settled the condition In which we should 
pass that portion of our existence which God al- 
lows to men on earth. 

We do not read even of the discovery of this 
continent, without feeling something of a per- 
sonal Interest In the event; without being reminded 
how much It has affected our own fortunes and 
our own existence. It would be still more un- 
natural for us, therefore, than for others, to con- 
template with unaffected minds that Interesting, 
I may say that most touching and pathetic scene, 
when the great discoverer of America stood on 
the deck of his shattered bark, the shades of night 
falling on the sea, yet no man sleeping; tossed on 
the billows of an unknown ocean, yet the stronger 



DANIEL WEBSTER 9 

billows of alternate hope and despair tossing his 
own troubled thoughts; extending forward his 
harassed frame, straining westward his anxious 
and eager eyes, till Heaven at last granted him 
a moment of rapture and ecstasy In blessing 
his vision with the sight of the unknown 
world. 

Nearer to our times, more closely connected 
with our fates, and therefore still more Interest- 
ing to our feelings and affections, Is the settlement 
of our own country by colonists from England. 
We cherish every memorial of these worthy an- 
cestors; we celebrate their patience and fortitude; 
we admire their daring enterprise; we teach our 
children to venerate their piety; and we are justly 
proud of being descended from men who have set 
the world an example of founding civil Institutions 
on the great and united principles of human free- 
dom and human knowledge. To us, their chil- 
dren, the story of their labors and sufferings can 
never be without interest. We shall not stand 
unmoved on the shore of Plymouth, while the 
sea continues to wash it; nor will our brethren 
In another early and ancient Colony forget the 
place of Its first establishment, till their river shall 
cease to flow by it. No vigor of youth, no ma- 
turity of manhood, will lead the nation to forget 
the spots where Its Infancy was cradled and de- 
fended. 



lo NOTED SPEECHES OF 

J But the great event in the history of the conti- 
nent, which we are now met here to commemo- 
rate, that prodigy of modern times, at once the 
wonder and the blessing of the world, is the Amer- 
ican Revolution. In a day of extraordinary pros- 
perity and happiness, of high national honor, dis- 
tinction, and power, we are brought together, in 
this place, by our love of country, by our admira- 
tion of exalted character, by our gratitude for sig- 
nal services and patriotic devotion. 

The Society whose organ I am was formed 
for the purpose of rearing some honorable and 
durable monument to the memory of the early 
friends of American Independence. They have 
thought that for this object no time could be more 
propitious than the present prosperous and peace- 
ful period; that no place could claim preference 
over this memorable spot; and that no day could 
be more auspicious to the undertaking, than the 
anniversary of the battle which was here fought. 
The foundation of that monument we have now 
laid. With solemnities suited to the occasion, 
with prayers to Almighty God for his blessing, 
and in the midst of this cloud of witnesses, we 
have begun the work. We trust it will be pros- 
ecuted, and that, springing from a broad founda- 
tion, rising high in massive solidity and unadorned 
grandeur, it may remain as long as Heaven per- 
mits the works of man to last, a fit emblem, both 



DANIEL WEBSTER ii 

of the events In memory of which it is raised, and 
of the gratitude of those who have reared it. 

/We know, indeed, that the record of Illustrious 
actions is most safely deposited In the universal 
remembrance of mankind. We know, that If we, 
could cause this structure to ascend, not only till 
it reached the skies, but till it pierced them, its 
broad surfaces could still contain but part of 
that which, in an age of knowledge, hath already 
been spread over the earth, and which history 
charges Itself with making known to all future 
times. We know that no inscription on entab- 
latures less broad than the earth Itself can carry 
Information of the events we commemorate 
where it has not already gone; and that no struc- 
ture, which shall not outlive the duration of letters 
and knowledge among men, can prolong the 
memorial. But our object Is, by this edifice, to 
show our own deep sense of the value and im- 
portance of the achievements of our ancestors; 
and, by presenting this work of gratitude to the 
eye, to keep alive similar sentiments, and to fos- 
ter a constant regard for the principles of the 
Revolution. Human beings are composed, not of 
reason only, but of Imagination also, and senti- 
ment; and that Is neither wasted nor misap- 
plied which is appropriated to the purpose of 
giving right direction to sentiments, and opening 
proper springs of feeling In the heart. Let 



12 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

it not be supposed that our object Is to perpetuate 
national hostility, or even to cherish a mere mili- 
tary spirit. It is higher, purer, nobler. We con- 
secrate our work to the spirit of national in- 
dependence, and we wish that the light of peace 
may rest upon it forever. We rear a memorial of 
our conviction of that unmeasured benefit which 
has been conferred on our own land, and of the 
happy influences which have been produced, by the 
same events, on the general interests of mankind. 
We come, as Americans, to mark a spot which 
must forever be dear to us and our posterity. 
We wish that whosoever. In all coming time, shall 
turn his eye hither, may behold that the place is 
not undistinguished where the first great battle of 
the Revolution was fought. We wish that this 
structure may proclaim the magnitude and Im- 
portance of that event to every class and every 
age. We wish that Infancy may learn the pur- 
pose of Its erection from maternal lips, and that 
weary and withered age may behold It, and be 
solaced by the recollections which it suggests. 
We wish that labor may look up here, and be 
proud, in the midst of Its toil. We wish that. In 
those days of disaster, which, as they come 
upon all nations, must be expected to come upon 
us also, desponding patriotism may turn Its eyes 
hitherward, and be assured that the foundations 
of our national power are still strong. We wish 



DANIEL WEBSTER 13 

that this column, rising towards Heaven among 
the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to 
God, may contribute also to produce, in all minds, 
a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. We 
wish, finally, that the last object to the sight of 
him who leaves his native shore, and the first to 
gladden him who revisits it, may be something 
which shall remind him of the liberty and the 
glory of his country. Let it rise ! let it rise, till 
it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light 
of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and 
play on its summit. 

We live in a most extraordinary age. Events 
so various and so important that they might crowd 
and distinguish centuries are, in our times, 
compressed within the compass of a single life. 
When has it happened that history has had so 
much to record, in the same term of years, as since 
the 17th of June, 1775? Our own revolution, 
which, under other circumstances, might itself have 
been expected to occasion a war of half a 
century, has been achieved; twenty-four sovereign 
and independent States erected; and a general gov- 
ernment established over them, so safe, so wise, 
so free, so practical, that we might well wonder 
Its establishment should have been accomplished 
so soon, were it not far the greater wonder that 
it should have been established at all. Two or 
three millions of people have been augmented to 



14 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

twelve, the great forests of the West prostrated 
beneath the arm of successful Industry, and the 
dwellers on the banks of the Ohio and the Missis- 
sippi become the fellow-citizens and neighbors of 
those who cultivate the hills of New England. 
We have a comnrerce that leaves no sea unex- 
plored; navies which take no law from superior 
force; revenues adequate to all the exigencies of 
government, almost without taxation; and peace 
with all nations, founded on equal rights and mu- 
tual respect. 

Europe, within the same period, has been agi- 
tated by a mighty revolution, which, while It has 
been felt In the Individual condition and hap- 
piness of almost every man, has shaken to the 
center her political fabric, and dashed against one 
another thrones which had stood tranquil for ages. 
On this, our continent, our own example has been 
followed, and colonies have sprung up to be na- 
tions. Unaccustomed sounds of liberty and free 
government have reached us from beyond the 
track of the sun; and at this moment the do- 
minion of European power In this continent, from 
the place where we stand to the south pole, is an- 
nihilated forever. 

In the meantime, both In Europe and America, 
such has been the general progress of knowledge, 
such the Improvement In legislation. In commerce, 
In the arts. In letters, and, above all, in liberal 



DANIEL WEBSTER 15 

ideas and the general spirit of the age, that the 
whole world seems changed. 

Yet, notwithstanding that this Is but a faint ab- 
stract of the things which have happened since 
the day of the battle of Bunker Hill, we are but 
fifty years removed from It; atad we now stand 
here to enjoy all the blessings oTour own condi- 
tion, and to look abroad on the brightened pros- 
pects of the world, while we still have among us 
some of those who were active agents in the scenes 
of 1775, and who are now here, from every quar- 
ter of New England, to visit once more, and under 
circumstances so affecting, I had almost said so 
overwhelming, this renowned theater of their 
courage and patriotism. 

Venerable men, you have come down to us 
from a former generation. Heaven has bounte- 
ously lengthened out your lives, that you might be- 
hold this joyous day. You are now where you 
stood fifty years ago, this very hour, with your 
brothers and your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder, 
in the strife for your country. Behold, how al- 
tered! The same heavens are Indeed over your 
heads; the same ocean rolls at your feet; but all 
else how changed ! You hear now no roar of hos- 
tile cannon, you see no mixed volumes of smoke 
and flame rising from burning Charlestown. The 
ground strewed with the dead and the dying; the 



i6 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

impetuous charge; the steady and successful re- 
pulse; the loud call to repeated assault; the sum- 
moning of all that is manly to repeated resistance; 
a thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in 
an instant to whatever of terror there may be in 
war and death; — all these you have witnessed, 
but you witness them no more. All is peace. The 
heights of yonder metropolis, its towers and roofs, 
which you then saw filled with wives and children 
and countrymen in distress and terror, and looking 
with unutterable emotions for the issue of the com- 
bat, have presented you to-day with the sight of its 
whole happy population, come out to welcome and 
greet you with a universal jubilee. Yonder proud 
ships, by a felicity of position appropriately lying 
at the foot of this mount, and seeming fondly to 
cling around it, are not means of annoyance to 
you, but your country's own means of distinction 
and defense. All is peace; and God has granted 
you this sight of your country's happiness, ere you 
slumber in the grave. He has allowed you to be- 
hold and to partake the reward of your patriotic 
toils; and he has allowed us, your sons and coun- 
trymen, to meet you here, and in the name of the 
present generation, in the name of your country, 
in the name of liberty, to thank you ! 
)^ But, alas! you are not all here! Time and the 
sword have thinned your ranks. Prescott, Put- 



DANIEL WEBSTER 17 

nam, Stark, Brooks, Read, Pomeroy, Bridge ! our 
eyes seek for you in vain amid this broken band. 
You are gathered to your fathers, and live only 
to your country In her grateful remembrance and 
your own bright example. But let us not too 
much grieve, that you have met the common fate 
of men. You lived at least long enough to know 
that your work had been nobly and successfully ac- 
complished. You lived to see your country's In- 
dependence established, and to sheathe your 
swords from war. On the light of Liberty you 
saw arise the light of Peace, like 

" another morn, 
Risen on mid-noon;" 

and the sky on which you closed your eyes was 
cloudless. 

'"But, ah! Him! the first great martyr In this 
great cause ! Him ! the premature victim of his 
own self-devoting heart! Him! the head of our 
civil councils, and the destined leader of our mili- 
tary bands, whom nothing brought hither but the 
unquenchable fire of his own spirit! Him! cut 
off by Providence In the hour of overwhelming 
anxiety and thick gloom; falling ere he saw the 
star of his country rise; pouring out his generous 
blood like water, before he knew whether it would 
fertilize a land of freedom or of bondage!—^ 



i8 NOTED SPEECHES OR 

how shall I struggle with the emotions that stifle 
the utterance of thy name ! * Our poor work 
may perish; but thine shall endure! This monu- 
ment may molder away; the solid ground It rests 
upon may sink down to a level with the sea; but 
thy memory shall not fail ! Wheresoever among 
men a heart shall be found that beats to the trans- 
ports of patriotism and liberty, Its aspirations 
shall be to claim kindred with thy spirit ! 

But the scene amidst which we stand does not 
permit us to confine our thoughts or our sym- 
pathies to those fearless spirits who hazarded or 
lost their lives on this consecrated spot. We have 
the happiness to rejoice here in the presence of a 
most worthy representation of the survivors of the 
whole Revolutionary army. 

Veterans, you are the remnant of many a well- 
fought field. You bring with you marks of honor 
from Trenton and Monmouth, from Yorktown, 
Camden, Bennington, and Saratoga. Veterans 
OF HALF A century, when In your youthful days 
you put everything at hazard in your country's 
cause, good as that cause was, and sanguine as 
youth Is, still your fondest hopes did not stretch 
onward to an hour like this ! At a period to which 
you could not reasonably have expected to arrive, 
at a moment of national prosperity such as you 

* Joseph Warren. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 19 

could never have foreseen, you are now met here 
to enjoy the fellowship of old soldiers, and to re- 
ceive the overflowings of a universal gratitude. 

But your agitated countenances and your heav- 
ing breasts Inform me that even this is not an un- 
mixed joy. I perceive that a tumult of contending 
feelings rushes upon you. The images of the 
dead, as well as the persons of the living, present 
themselves before you. The scene overwhelms 
you, and I turn from it. May the Father of all 
Mercies smile upon your declining years, and bless 
them! And when you shall here have exchanged 
your embraces, when you shall once more have 
pressed the hands which have been so often ex- 
tended to give succor In adversity, or grasped in 
the exultation of victory, then look abroad upon 
this lovely land which your young valor defended, 
and mark the happiness with which it is filled; yea, 
look abroad upon the whole earth, and see what a 
name you have contributed to give to your coun- 
try, and what a praise you have added to freedom, 
and then rejoice in the sympathy and gratitude 
which beam upon your last days from the im- 
proved condition of mankind. 

The occasion does not require of me any partic- 
ular account of the battle of the 17th of June, 
1775, nor any detailed narrative of the events 
which immediately preceded It. These are famil- 
iarly known to all. In the progress of the great 



20 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

and Interesting controversy, Massachusetts and 
the town of Boston had become early and marked 
objects of the displeasure of the British Parlia- 
ment. This had been manifested in the act 
for altering the government of the Province, and 
In that for shutting up the port of Boston. Noth- 
ing sheds more honor on our early history, 
and nothing better shows how little the feelings 
and sentiments of the Colonies were known or 
regarded In England, than the Impression which 
these measures everywhere produced In America. 
It had been anticipated, that while the Colonies 
in general would be terrified by the severity of 
the punishment Inflicted on Massachusetts, the 
other seaports would be governed by a mere spirit 
of gain; and that, as Boston was now cut off from 
all commerce, the unexpected advantage which 
this blow on her was calculated to confer on other 
towns would be greedily enjoyed. How misera- 
bly such reasoners deceived themselves! How 
little they knew of the depth, and the strength, 
and the Intenseness of that feeling of resistance to 
illegal acts of power, which possessed the whole 
American people ! Everywhere the unworthy 
boon was rejected with scorn. The fortunate 
occasion was seized, everywhere, to show to the 
whole world that the Colonies were swayed by no 
local Interest, no partial Interest, no selfish Inter- 
est. The temptation to profit by the punishment 



DANIEL WEBSTER 21 

of Boston was strongest to our neighbors of Sa- 
lem. Yet Salem was precisely the place where 
this miserable proffer was spurned, In a tone of the 
most lofty self-respect and the most indignant pa- 
triotism. " We are deeply affected," said its in- 
habitants, " with the sense of our public calami- 
ties; but the miseries that are now rapidly 
hastening on our brethren in the capital of the 
Province greatly excite our commiseration. By 
shutting up the port of Boston some imagine that 
the course of trade might be turned hither and to 
our benefit; but we must be dead to every idea of 
justice, lost to all feelings of humanity, could we 
indulge a thought to seize on wealth and raise 
our fortunes on the ruin of our suffering neigh- 
bors." These noble sentiments were not confined 
to our immediate vicinity. In that day of general 
affection and brotherhood, the blow given to Bos- 
ton smote on every patriotic heart from one end 
of the country to the other. Virginia and the 
Carolinas, as well as Connecticut and New Hamp- 
shire, felt and proclaimed the cause to be their 
own. The Continental Congress, then holding 
its first session in Philadelphia, expressed its sym- 
pathy for the suffering inhabitants of Boston, and 
addresses were received from all quarters, assur- 
ing them that the cause was a common one, 
and should be met by common efforts and common 
sacrifices. The Congress of Massachusetts re- 



22 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

sponded to these assurances; and In an address to 
the Congress at Philadelphia, bearing the official 
signature, perhaps among the last, of the Immortal 
Warren, notwithstanding the severity of Its suffer- 
ing and the magnitude of the dangers which 
threatened it, it was declared that this Colony " is 
ready, at all times, to spend and to be spent in the 
cause of America." 

But the hour drew nigh which was to put pro- 
fessions to the proof, and to determine whether 
the authors of these mutual pledges were ready 
to seal them in blood. The tidings of Lexington 
and Concord had no sooner spread, than it was uni- 
versally felt that the time was at last come for 
action. A spirit pervaded all ranks, not transient, 
not boisterous, but deep, solemn, determined, — 

"Totamque infusa per artus 
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet." * 

War on their own soil and at their own doors, was, 
indeed, a strange work to the yeomanry of New 
England; but their consciences were convinced of 
its necessity, their country called them to it, and 
they did not withhold themselves from the peril- 
ous trial. The ordinary occupations of life were 
abandoned; the plow was stayed in the unfinished 
furrow; wives gave up their husbands, and 

* " And a Mind, diffused throughout the members, gives energy to the 
whole mass, and mingles with the vast body." 



DANIEL WEBSTER 23 

mothers gave up their sons, to the battles of a 
civil war. Death might come in honor, on the 
field; it might come, in disgrace, on the scaffold. 
For either and for both they were prepared. The 
sentiment of Quincy was full in their hearts. 
" Blandishments," said that distinguished son of 
genius and patriotism, " will not fascinate us, nor 
will threats of a halter intimidate; for, under God, 
we are determined, that, wheresoever, whensoever, 
or howsoever, we shall be called to make our exit, 
we will die free men." 

The seventeenth of June saw the four New 
England Colonies standing here, side by side, to 
triumph or to fall together; and there was with 
them from that moment to the end of the war, 
what I hope will remain with them forever, — 
one cause, one country, one heart. 

The battle of Bunker Hill was attended with 
the most important effects beyond its immediate 
results as a military engagement. It created at 
once a state of open, public war. There could 
now be no longer a question of proceeding against 
individuals, as guilty of treason or rebellion. 
That fearful crisis was past. The appeal lay to 
the sword, and the only question was, whether 
the spirit and the resources of the people would 
hold out till the object should be accomphshed. 
Nor were its general consequences confined to our 
own country. The previous proceedings of the 



24 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

Colonies, their appeals, resolutions, and addresses, 
had made their cause known to Europe. With- 
out boasting, we may say, that In no age or 
country has the public cause been maintained^ 
with more force of argument, more power of Illus- 
tration, or more of that persuasion which excited 
feeling and elevated principle can alone bestow, 
than the Revolutionary state papers exhibit. 
These papers will forever deserve to be studied, 
not only for the spirit which they breathe, but for 
the ability with which they were written. 

To this able vindication of their cause, the Col- 
onies had now added a practical and severe proof 
of their own true devotion to It, and given 
evidence also of the power which they could 
bring to Its support. All now saw, that If America 
fell, she would not fall without a struggle. Men 
felt sympathy and regard, as well as surprise, when 
they beheld these Infant states, remote, unknown, 
unaided, encounter the power of England, and, 
in the first considerable battle, leave more of their 
enemies dead on the field. In proportion to the 
number of combatants, than had been recently 
known to fall In the wars of Europe. 

Information of these events, circulating 
throughout the world, at length reached the ears 
of one who now hears me.* He has not forgot- 
ten the emotion which the fame of Bunker Hill, 

" The Marquis de Lafayette. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 25 

and the name of Warren, excited in his youthful 
breast. 

Sir, we are assembled to commemorate the es- 
tablishment of great public principles of liberty, 
and to do honor to the distinguished dead. The 
occasion Is too severe for eulogy of the living. 
But, sir, your interesting relation to this country, 
the peculiar circumstances which surround you and 
surround us, call on me to express the happiness 
which we derive from your presence and aid In 
this solemn commemoration. 

Fortunate, fortunate man! with what measure 
of devotion will you not thank God for the 
circumstances of your extraordinary hfe! You 
are connected with both hemispheres and with 
two generations. Heaven saw fit to ordain 
that the electric spark of hberty should be 
conducted, through you, from the New World 
to the Old; and we, who are now here to 
perform this duty of patriotism, have all of us 
long ago received It In charge from our fa- 
thers to cherish your name and your virtues. 
You will account it an Instance of your good for- 
tune, sir, that you crossed the seas to visit 
us at a time which enables you to be present at this 
solemnity. You now behold the field, the renown 
of which reached you in the heart of France, and 
caused a thrill in your ardent bosom. You see 
the lines of the little redoubt thrown up by the In- 



26 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

credible diligence of Prescott; defended, to the 
last extremity, by his lion-hearted valor; and within 
which the corner-stone of our monument has 
now taken Its position. You see where Warren 
fell, and where Parker, Gardner, McCleary, 
Moore, and other early patriots fell with him. 
Those who survived that day, and whose lives 
have been prolonged to the present hour, are now 
around you. Some of them you have known in 
the trying scenes of the war. Behold! they now 
stretch forth their feeble arms to embrace you. 
Behold! they raise their trembling voices to in- 
voke the blessing of God on you and yours for- 
ever. 

Sir, you have assisted us In laying the foundation 
of this structure. You have heard us rehearse, 
with our feeble commendation, the names of de- 
parted patriots. Monuments and eulogy belong 
to the dead. We give then this day to Warren 
and his associates. On other occasions they have 
been given to your more Immediate companions 
in arms, to Washington, to Greene, to Gates, to 
Sullivan, and to Lincoln. We have become re- 
luctant to grant these, our highest and last honors, 
further. We would gladly hold them yet back 
from the little remnant of that Immortal band. 
*' Seriis in cceliim redeasJ^ "^ Illustrious as are 
your merits, yet far, O, very far distant be the 

* " Late may you return to heaven." 



DANIEL WEBSTER 27 

day, when any inscription shall bear your name, or 
any tongue pronounce its eulogy ! 

The leading reflection to which this occasion 
seems to invite us, respects the great changes 
which have happened in the fifty years since the 
battle of Bunker Hill was fought. And it pecul- 
iarly marks the character of the present age, that, 
in looking at these changes, and in estimating their 
effect on our condition, we are obliged to con- 
sider, not what has been done in our country only, 
but in others also. In these interesting times, 
while nations are making separate and individual 
advances in Improvement, they make, too, a com- 
mon progress ; like vessels on a common tide, pro- 
pelled by the gales at different rates, according to 
their several structure and management, but all 
moved forward by one mighty current, strong 
enough to bear onward whatever does not sink 
beneath it. 

A chief distinction of the present day is a com- 
munity of opinions and knowledge amongst men 
in different nations, existing in a degree hereto- 
fore unknown. Knowledge has, in our time, tri- 
umphed, and is triumphing, over distance, over 
difference of languages, over diversity of habits, 
over prejudice, and over bigotry. The civilized 
and Christian world is fast learning the great les- 
son, that difference of nation does not imply neces- 
sary hostility, and that all contact need not be war. 



28 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

The whole world is becoming a common field for 
intellect to act in. Energy of mind, genius, 
power, wheresoever it exists, may speak out in any 
tongue, and the world will hear It. A great chord 
of sentiment and feeling runs through two conti- 
nents, and vibrates over both. Every breeze 
wafts intelligence from country to country, every 
wave rolls it; all give it forth, and all in turn re- 
ceive it. There is a vast commerce of ideas; 
there are marts and exchanges for Intellectual dis- 
coveries, and a wonderful fellowship of those in- 
dividual intelligences which make up the mind and 
opinion of the age. Mind Is the great lever of 
all things; human thought is the process by which 
human ends are ultimately answered; and the dif- 
fusion of knowledge, so astonishing in the last 
half-century, has rendered innumerable minds, 
variously gifted by nature, competent to be com- 
petitors or fellow-workers on the theater of Intel- 
lectual operation. 

From these causes, Important improvements 
have taken place In the personal condition of in- 
dividuals. Generally speaking, mankind are not 
only better fed and better clothed, but they are 
able also to enjoy more leisure; they possess more 
refinement and more self-respect. A superior 
tone of education, manners, and habits prevails. 
This remark, most true In its application to our 
own country, is also partly true when applied else- 



DANIEL WEBSTER 29 

where. It Is proved by the vastly augmented 
consumption of those articles of manufacture and 
of commerce which contribute to the comforts and 
the decencies of life; an augmentation which has 
far outrun the progress of population. And 
while the unexampled and almost incredible use 
of machinery would seem to supply the place of 
labor, labor still finds Its occupation and Its re- 
ward; so wisely has Providence adjusted men's 
wants and desires to their condition and their ca- 
pacity. 

Any adequate survey, however, of the progress 
made during the last half-century In the polite and 
the mechanic arts, In machinery and manufactures, 
in commerce and agriculture. In letters and in 
science, would require volumes. I must abstain 
wholly from these subjects, and turn for a mo- 
ment to the contemplation of what has been done 
on the great question of politics and government. 
This Is the master topic of the age; and during 
the whole fifty years It has Intensely occupied the 
thoughts of men. The nature of civil govern- 
ment. Its ends and uses, have been canvassed and 
Investigated; ancient opinions attacked and de- 
fended; new ideas recommended and resisted, bv 
whatever power the mind of man could bring to 
the controversy. From the closet and the public 
halls the debate has been transferred to the field; 
and the world has been shaken by wars of unex- 



so NOTED SPEECHES OF 

ampled magnitude, and the greatest variety of 
fortune. A day of peace has at length succeeded; 
and now that the strife has subsided, and the 
smoke cleared away, we may begin to see what 
has actually been done, permanently changing the 
state and condition of human society. And, with- 
out dwelling on particular circumstances, it Is most 
apparent, that, from the before-mentioned causes 
of augmented knowledge and improved individ- 
ual condition, a real, substantial, and important 
change has taken place, and Is taking place, highly 
favorable, on the whole, to human liberty and 
human happiness. 

The great wheel of political revolution began 
to move in America. Here its rotation was 
guarded, regular, and safe. Transferred to the 
other continent, from unfortunate but natural 
causes, it received an Irregular and violent Im- 
pulse; it whirled along with a fearful celerity; till 
at length, like the chariot-wheels in the races of 
antiquity, It took fire from the rapidity of Its own 
motion, and blazed onward, spreading conflagra- 
tion and terror around. 

We learn from the result of this experiment, 
how fortunate was our own condition, and how 
admirably the character of our people was calcu- 
lated for setting the great example of popular 
governments. The possession of power did not 
turn the heads of the American people, for they 



DANIEL WEBSTER 31 

had long been in the habit of exercising a great 
degree of self-control. Although the paramount 
authority of the parent state existed over them, 
yet a large field of legislation had always been 
open to our Colonial assemblies. They were ac- 
customed to representative bodies and the forms 
of free government; they understood the doctrine 
of the division of power among different branches, 
and the necessity of checks on each. The char- 
acter of our countrymen, moreover, was sober, 
moral, and religious; and there was little in the 
change to shock their feelings of justice and hu- 
manity, or even to disturb an honest prejudice. 
We had no domestic throne to overturn, no privi- 
leged orders to cast down, no violent changes of 
property to encounter. In the American Revolu- 
tion, no man sought or wished for more than to 
defend and enjoy his own. None hoped for 
plunder or for spoil. Rapacity was unknown to 
it; the axe was not among the instruments of its 
accomplishment; and we all know that it could not 
have lived a single day under any well-founded 
imputation of possessing a tendency adverse to the 
Christian religion. 

It need not surprise us, that, under circum- 
stances less auspicious, political revolutions else- 
where, even when well intended, have terminated 
differently. It is, indeed, a great achievement, it 
Is the masterwork of the world, to establish 



32 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

governments entirely popular on lasting founda- 
tions; nor is it easy, indeed, to introduce the popu- 
lar principle at all into governments to which it 
has been altogether a stranger. It cannot be 
doubted, however, that Europe has come out of 
the contest, in which she has been so long en- 
gaged, with greatly superior knowledge, and, in 
many respects, in a highly improved condition. 
Whatever benefit has been acquired is likely to be 
retained, for it consists mainly in the acquisition 
of more enlightened ideas. And although king- 
doms and provinces may be wrested from the 
hands that hold them, in the same manner they 
were obtained; although ordinary and vulgar 
power may, in human affairs, be lost as it has been 
won; yet it is the glorious prerogative of the em- 
pire of knowledge, that what it gains it never 
loses. On the contrary, it increases by the multi- 
ple of its own power; all its ends become means; 
all its attainments, helps to new conquests. Its 
whole abundant harvest is but so much seed wheat, 
and nothing has limited, and nothing can limit, the 
amount of ultimate product. 

Under the influence of this rapidly increasing 
knowledge, the people have begun, in all forms 
of government, to think, and to reason, on affairs 
of state. Regarding government as an institution 
for the public good, they demand a knowledge of 
its operations, and a participation in its exercise. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 33 

A call for the representative system, wherever it 
Is not enjoyed, and where there Is already Intel- 
ligence enough to estimate its value, is persever- 
ingly made. Where men may speak out, they 
demand It; where the bayonet Is at their throats, 
they pray for it. 

When Louis XIV said: "I am the State," 
he expressed the essence of the doctrine of un- 
limited power. By the rules of that system, the 
people are disconnected from the state; they are 
its subjects, It Is their lord. These Ideas, founded 
In the love of power, and long supported by the 
excess and the abuse of it, are yielding, In our age, 
to other opinions; and the civilized world seems 
at last to be proceeding to the conviction of that 
fundamental and manifest truth, that the powers 
of government are but a trust, and that they can- 
not be lawfully exercised but for the good of the 
community. As knowledge Is more and more 
extended, this conviction becomes more and more 
general. Knowledge, In truth. Is the great sun 
in the firmament. Life and power are scattered 
with all Its beams. The prayer of the Grecian 
champion, when enveloped In unnatural clouds 
and darkness, Is the appropriate political suppli- 
cation for the people of every country not yet 
blessed with free Institutions: — 

" Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore, 
Give me to see, — and Ajax asks no more." 



34 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

We may hope that the growing influence of 
enlightened sentiment avIII promote the permanent 
peace of the world. Wars to maintain family 
alliances, to uphold or to cast down dynasties, 
and to regulate successions to thrones, which have 
occupied so much room in the history of modern 
times, if not less likely to happen at all, will be 
less likely to become general and involve many 
nations, as the great principle shall be more and 
more established, that the Interest of the world 
Is peace, and Its first great statute, that every na- 
tion possesses the power of establishing a govern- 
ment for itself. But public opinion has attained 
also an Influence over governments which do not 
admit the popular principle Into their organiza- 
tion. A necessary respect for the judgment of 
the world operates. In some measure, as a con- 
trol over the most unlimited forms of authority. 
It Is owing, perhaps, to this truth, that the interest- 
ing struggle of the Greeks has been suffered to go 
on so long, without a direct Interference, either 
to wrest that country from Its present masters, 
or to execute the system of pacification by force ; 
and, with united strength, lay the neck of Chris- 
tian and civilized Greek at the foot of the bar- 
barian Turk. Let us thank God that we live in 
an age when something has Influence besides the 
bayonet, and when the sternest authority does 
not venture to encounter the scorching power of 



DANIEL WEBSTER 35 

public reproach. Any attempt of the kind I have 
mentioned should be met by one universal burst 
of indignation; the air of the civilized world 
ought to be made too warm to be comfortably 
breathed by any one who would hazard it. 

It is, indeed, a touching reflection, that, while, 
in the fullness of our country's happiness, we rear 
this monument to her honor, we look for Instruc- 
tion In our undertaking to a country which is now 
in fearful contest, not for works of art or me- 
morials of glory, but for her own existence. Let 
her be assured, that she is not forgotten in the 
world; that her efforts are applauded, and that 
constant prayers ascend for her success. And 
let us cherish a confident hope for her final tri- 
umph. If the true spark of religious and civil 
liberty be kindled, it will burn. Human agency 
cannot extinguish it. Like the earth's central 
fire, it may be smothered for a time; the ocean 
may overwhelm it; mountains may press it down; 
but its inherent and unconquerable force will 
heave both the ocean and the land, and at some 
time or other, in some place or other, the volcano 
will break out and flame up to Heaven. 

Among the great events of the half-century, 
we must reckon, certainly, the revolution of South 
America; and we are not likely to overrate the 
importance of that revolution, either to the peo- 
ple of the country itself or to the rest of the 



36 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

world. The late Spanish Colonies, now inde- 
pendent states, under circumstances less favora- 
ble, doubtless, than attended our own revolution, 
have yet successfully commenced their national 
existence. They have accomplished the great ob- 
ject of establishing their independence; they are 
known and acknowledged in the world; and al- 
though In regard to their systems of government, 
their sentiments on religious toleration, and their 
provision for public instruction, they may have 
yet much to learn, it must be admitted that they 
have risen to the condition of settled and estab- 
lished states more rapidly than could have been 
reasonably anticipated. They already furnish an 
exhilarating example of the difference between 
free governments and despotic misrule. Their 
commerce, at this moment, creates a new activity 
In all the great marts of the world. They show 
themselves able, by an exchange of commodities, 
to bear a useful part in the Intercourse of nations. 
A new spirit of enterprise and industry begins to 
prevail; all the great interests of society receive a 
salutary Impulse; and the progress of information 
not only testifies to an improved condition, but 
itself constitutes the highest and most essential 
improvement. 

When the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, 
the existence of South America was scarcely felt 
in the civilized world. The thirteen little colo- 



DANIEL WEBSTER 37 

nies of North America habitually called them- 
selves the " continent." Borne down by colonial 
subjugation, monopoly, and bigotry, these vast 
regions of the South were hardly visible above the 
honzon. But in our day there has been, as It 
were, a new creation. The southern hemisphere 
emerges from the sea. Its lofty mountains begin 
to lift themselves into the light of Heaven; its 
broad and fertile plains stretch out, in beauty, to 
the eye of civilized man, and at the mighty bid- 
ding of the voice of political liberty the waters of 
darkness retire. 

And now let us indulge an honest exultation In 
the conviction of the benefit which the example of 
our country has produced, and Is likely to pro- 
duce, on human freedom and human happiness. 
Let us endeavor to comprehend In all Its magni- 
tude, and to feel In all Its Importance, the part 
assigned to us in the great drama of human affairs. 
We are placed at the head of the system of rep- 
resentative and popular governments. Thus 
far our example shows that such governments 
are compatible, not only with respectability and 
power, but with repose, with peace, with security 
of personal rights, with good laws, and a just ad- 
ministration. 

We are not propagandists. Wherever other 
systems are preferred, either as being thought 
better In themselves, or as better suited to exist- 



38 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

Ing conditions, we leave the preference to be en- 
joyed. Our history hitherto proves, however, 
that the popular form is practicable, and that 
with wisdom and knowledge men may govern 
themselves; and the duty incumbent on us is to 
preserve the consistency of this cheering example, 
and take care that nothing may weaken its au- 
thority with the world. If, in our case, the rep- 
resentative system ultimately fail, popular govern- 
ments must be pronounced impossible. No 
combination of circumstances more favorable to 
the experiment can ever be expected to occur. 
The last hopes of mankind, therefore, rest with 
us; and if it should be proclaimed, that our ex- 
ample had become an argument against the ex- 
periment, the knell of popular liberty would 
be sounded throughout the earth. 

These are excitements to duty; but the^ are 
not suggestions of doubt. Our history and our 
condition, all that is gone before us, and all that 
surrounds us, authorize the belief, that popular 
governments, though subject to occasional varia- 
tions, -in form perhaps not always for the 
better, may yet, in their general character, be as 
durable and permanent as other systems. We 
know, indeed, that in our country any other is 
impossible. The principle of free governments 
adheres to the American soil. It is bedded in it, 
immovable as its mountains. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 39 

And let the sacred obligations which have 
devolved on this generation, and on us, sink deep 
into our hearts. Those who established our lib- 
erty and our government are daily dropping 
from among us. The great trust now descends 
to new hands. Let us apply ourselves to that 
which Is presented to us, as our appropriate ob- 
ject. We can win no laurels in a war for inde- 
pendence. Earlier and worthier hands have 
gathered them all. Nor are there places for us 
by the side of Solon, and Alfred, and other found- 
ers of states. Our fathers have filled them. 
But there remains to us a great duty of defense 
and preservation; and there Is opened to us, also, 
a noble pursuit, to which the spirit of the times 
strongly invites us. Our proper business is Im- 
provement. Let our age be the age of improve- 
ment. In a day of peace, let us advance the arts 
of peace and the works of peace. Let us develop 
the resources of our land, call forth its powers, 
build up its institutions, promote all its great In- 
terests, and see whether we also, In our day and 
generation, may not perform something worthy 
to be remembered. Let us cultivate a true spirit 
of union and harmony. In pursuing the great 
objects which our condition points out to us, let 
us act under a settled conviction, and an habitual 
feeling, that these twenty-four States are one 
country. Let our conceptions be enlarged to the 



40 DANIEL WEBSTER 

circle of our duties. Let us extend our Ideas 
over the whole of the vast field In which we are 
called to act. Let our object be, OUR country, 

OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR 

COUNTRY. And by the blessing of God, may that 
country Itself become a vast and splendid monu- 
ment, not of oppression and terror, but of Wis- 
dom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon which 
the world may gaze with admiration forever. 



REPLY TO HAYNE 

Delivered in the United States Senate, January 

26, 1830. 

Mr. President: — When the mariner has been 
tossed for many days, in thick weather, and on an 
unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the 
first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the 
sun, to take his latitude, and ascertain how far 
the elements have driven him from his true course. 
Let us imitate this prudence, and, before we float 
farther on the waves of this debate, refer to the 
point from which we departed, that we may at 
least be able to conjecture where we now are. I 
ask for the reading of the resolution. 

[The resolution was then read.] 

We have thus heard, sir, what the resolution 
is, which is actually before us for consideration; 
and it will readily occur to every one that it is 
almost the only subject about which something 
has not been said in the speech, running through 
two days, by which the Senate has been now en- 
tertained by the gentleman from South Carolina. 
Every topic in the wide range of our public affairs, 

41 



42 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

whether past or present — everything, general 
or local, whether belonging to national politics, 
or party politics, seems to have attracted more or 
less of the honorable member's attention, save 
only the resolution before the Senate. He has 
spoken of everything but the public lands. They 
have escaped his notice. To that subject, in all 
his excursions, he has not paid even the cold re- 
spect of a passing glance. 

When this debate, sir, was to be resumed on 
Thursday morning. It so happened that It would 
have been convenient for me to be elsewhere. 
The honorable member, however, did not incline 
to put off the discussion to another day. He had 
a shot, he said, to return, and he wished to dis- 
charge It. That shot, sir, which It was kind thus 
to inform us was coming, that we might stand 
out of the way, or prepare ourselves to fall before 
It, and die v/ith decency, has now been received. 
Under all advantages, and with expectation 
awakened by the tone which preceded It, It has 
been discharged, and has spent its force. It may 
become me to say no more of its effect, than that, 
If nobody Is found, after all, either killed or 
wounded by It, It is not the first time, in the his- 
tory of human affairs, that the vigor and success 
of the war have not quite come up to the lofty 
and sounding phrase of the manifesto. . . . 

The honorable member complained that I had 



DANIEL WEBSTER 43 

slept on his speech. I must have slept on It, or 
not slept at all. ... I did sleep on the gentle- 
man's speech; and slept soundly. And I slept 
equally well on his speech of yesterday, to which 
I am now replying. It Is quite possible that in 
this respect, also, I possess some advantage over 
the honorable member, attributable, doubtless, to 
a cooler temperament on my part; for, in truth, I 
slept upon his speeches remarkably well. But the 
gentleman Inquires why he was made the object 
of such a reply? Why was he singled out? If 
an attack has been made on the East, he, he as- 
sures us, did not begin It, — It was the gentleman 
from Missouri. Sir, I answered the gentleman's 
speech because I happened to hear it, and because, 
also, I chose to give an answer to that speech 
which, if unanswered, I thought most likely to 
produce injurious Impressions. I did not stop to 
Inquire who was the original drawer of the bill. 
I found a responsible indorser before me, and It 
was my purpose to hold him liable, and to bring 
him to his just responsibility without delay. But, 
sir, this Interrogatory of the honorable member 
was only Introductory to another. He proceeded 
to ask me whether I had turned upon him, In 
this debate, from the consciousness that I should 
find an overmatch if I ventured on a contest with 
his * friend from Missouri. If sir, the honorable 

* Mr. Benton. 



44 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

member, ex gratia modestiae^ had chosen thus 
to defer to his friend and to pay him a compli- 
ment, without intentional disparagement to others, 
it would have been quite according to the friendly 
courtesies of debate, and not at all ungrateful to 
my own feelings. I am not one of those, sir, who 
esteem any tribute of regard, whether light or oc- 
casional, or more serious and deliberate, which 
may be bestowed on others, as so much unjustly 
withholden from themselves. But the tone and 
manner of the gentleman's question forbid me that 
I thus interpret it. I am not at liberty to consider 
it as nothing more than a civility to his friend. 
It had an air of taunt and disparagement, some- 
thing of the loftiness of asserted superiority, which 
does not allow me to pass over it without notice. 
It was put as a question for me to answer: 
Whether I deemed the member from Missouri an 
overmatch for myself in debate here. It seems 
to me, sir, that this is extraordinary language, and 
an extraordinary tone, for the discussions of this 
body. 

Matches and overmatches! Those terms are 
more applicable elsewhere than here, and fitter for 
other assemblies than this. Sir, the gentleman 
seems to forget where and what we are. This is 
a Senate; a Senate of equals: of men of individual 
honor and personal character, and of absolute in- 
dependence. We know no masters: we acknowl- 



DANIEL WEBSTER 45 

edge no dictators. This is a hall for mutual con- 
sultation and discussion; not an arena for the ex- 
hibition of champions. I offer myself, sir, as a 
match for no man; I throw the challenge of 
debate at no man's feet. But then, sir, since the 
honorable member has put the question for an an- 
swer, I will give him an answer; and I will tell 
him that, holding myself to be the humblest of the 
members here, I yet know nothing in the arm of 
his friend from Missouri, either alone or when 
aided by the arm of his friend from South Caro- 
lina, that need deter even me from espousing 
whatever opinions I may choose to espouse, from 
debating whenever I may choose to debate, or 
from speaking whatever I may see fit to say, on 
the floor of the Senate. Sir, when uttered as mat- 
ter of commendation or compliment, I should 
dissent from nothing which the honorable member 
might say of his friend. Still less do I put forth 
any pretensions of my own. But, when put to 
me as a matter of taunt, I throw it back, and say 
to the gentleman that he could possibly say noth- 
ing less likely than such a comparison to wound 
my pride of personal character. The anger of 
Its tone rescued the remark from Intentional Irony, 
which otherwise probably would have been Its gen- 
eral acceptation. . . . Sir, I shall not allow myself 
on this occasion, I hope on no occasion, to be be- 
trayed Into any loss of temper; but If provoked, 



46 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

as I trust I never shall be, into crimination and 
recrimination, the honorable member may perhaps 
find that, in that contest, there will be blows to 
take as well as blows to give; that others can 
state comparisons as significant, at least, as his 
own; and that his impunity may possibly demand 
of him whatever powers of taunt and sarcasm he 
may possess. I commend him to a prudent hus- 
bandry of his resources. 

We approach, at length, sir, to a more Impor- 
tant part of the honorable gentleman's observa- 
tions. Since it does not accord with my views of 
justice and policy to give away the public lands 
altogether, as mere matter of gratuity, I am asked 
by the honorable gentleman on what ground it Is 
that I consent to vote them away In particular 
Instances? How, he inquires, do I reconcile with 
these professed sentiments my support of meas- 
ures appropriating portions of the lands to partic- 
ular roads, particular canals, particular rivers, and 
particular Institutions of education In the West? 
This leads, sir, to the real and wide difference. In 
political opinion, between the honorable gentle- 
man and myself. On my part, I look upon all 
these objects as connected with the common good, 
fairly embraced In its object and Its terms; he, on 
the contrary, deems them all. If good at all, only 
local good. This Is our difference. The inter- 



DANIEL WEBSTER 47 

rogatory which he proceeded to put, at once 
explains this difference. " What interest," asks 
he, ''has South Carolina in a canal in Ohio?" 
Sir, this very question is full of significance. It 
develops the gentleman^s whole political system; 
and its answer expounds mine. Here we differ. 
I look upon a road over the Alleghany, a canal 
round the falls of the Ohio, or a canal or railway 
from the Atlantic to the western waters, as being 
an object large and extensive enough to be fairly 
said to be for the common benefit. The gentle- 
man thinks otherwise, and this is the key to open 
his construction of the powers of the government. 
He may well ask what interest has South Carolina 
in a canal in Ohio ? On his system, it is true, she 
has no interest. On that system, Ohio and Caro- 
lina are different governments, and different 
countries: connected here, it is true, by some slight 
and ill-defined bond of union, but, in all main re- 
spects, separate and diverse. On that system, 
Carolina has no more interest in a canal in Ohio 
than in Mexico. The gentleman, therefore, only 
follows out his own principles; he does no more 
than arrive at the natural conclusions of his own 
doctrines; he only announces the true results of 
that creed, which he has adopted himself, and 
would persuade others to adopt, when he thus de- 
clares that South Carolina has no interest in a 
public work in Ohio. Sir, we narrow-minded peo- 



48 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

pie of New England do not reason thus. Our 
notion of things Is entirely different. We look 
upon the States not as separated, but as united. 
We love to dwell on that union, and on the mu- 
tual happiness which It has so much promoted, and 
the common renown which It has so greatly con- 
tributed to acquire. In our contemplation, Caro- 
lina and Ohio are parts of the same country; 
States, united under the same General Govern- 
ment, having interests, common, associated. Inter- 
mingled. In whatever Is within the proper sphere 
of the constitutional power of this government, we 
look upon the States as one. We do not Impose 
geographical limits to our patriotic feeling or re- 
gard; we do not follow rivers and mountains, and 
lines of latitude, to find boundaries beyond which 
public Improvements do not benefit us. We who 
come here, as agents and representatives of these 
narrow-minded and selfish men of New England, 
consider ourselves as bound to regard, with an 
equal eye, the good of the whole, In whatever Is 
within our power of legislation. Sir, if a railroad 
or canal, beginning In South Carolina and ending 
in South Carolina, appeared to me to be of na- 
tional importance and national magnitude, believ- 
ing, as I do, that the power of government extends 
to the encouragement of works of that description, 
if I were to stand up here, and ask, what interest 
has Massachusetts in a railroad in South Carolina, 



DANIEL WEBSTER 49 

I should not be willing to face my constituents. 
These same narrow-minded men would tell me 
that they had sent me to act for the whole country, 
and that one who possessed too little comprehen- 
sion, either of Intellect or feeling — one who was 
not large enough, both In mind and In heart, to 
embrace the whole — was not fit to be entrusted 
with the Interest of any part. Sir, I do not desire 
to enlarge the powers of the government, by un- 
justifiable construction; nor to exercise any not 
within a fair Interpretation. But when It Is be- 
lieved that a power does exist, then It Is, In my 
judgment, to be exercised for the general benefit 
of the whole. So far as respects the exercise of 
such a power, the States are one. It was the very 
object of the Constitution to create unity of Inter- 
ests to the extent of the powers of the general 
government. In war and peace we are one; In 
commerce, one; because the authority of the gen- 
eral government reaches to war and peace, and 
to the regulation of commerce. I have never seen 
any more difficulty In erecting light-houses on the 
lakes than on the ocean; In Improving the har- 
bors of Inland seas, than if they were within the 
ebb and flow of the tide; or of removing ob- 
structions in the vast streams of the West, more 
than In any work to facilitate commerce on the 
Atlantic coast. If there be any power for one, 
there Is power also for the other; and they are 



50 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

all and equally for the common good of the 

country. 

• ••••••• 

The tariff, which South Caroluia had an effi- 
cient hand In establishing in 1816, and this as- 
serted power of Internal Improvement advanced 
by her In the same year, and as we have seen ap- 
proved and sanctioned by her representatives In 
1824, — these two measures are the great grounds 
on which she Is now thought to be justified In 
breaking up the Union, if she sees fit to break 
It up! 

I may now safely say, I think, that we have had 
the authority of leading and distinguished gentle- 
men from South Carolina, In support of the doc- 
trine of internal improvement. I repeat, that, up 
to 1824, I, for one, followed South Carolina; but 
when that star. In its ascension, veered off in an 
unexpected direction, I relied on its light no 
longer. 

. . . The strenuous toil of the gentleman has 
been to raise an inconsistency, between my dissent 
to the tariff in 1824, and my vote In 1828. It Is 
labor lost. He pays undeserved compliment to 
my speech in 1824; but this Is to raise me high, 
that my fall, as he would have It, In 1828, may be 
more signal. Sir, there was no fall at all. Be- 
tween the ground I took In 1828, there was not 
only no precipice, but no dechvlty. It was a 



DANIEL WEBSTER 51 

change of position, to meet new circumstances, but 
on the same level. A plain tale explains the whole 
matter. In 18 16, I had not acquiesced in the 
tariff, then supported by South Carolina. To 
some parts of It, especially, I felt and expressed 
great repugnance. I held the same opinions In 
182 1, at the meeting in Faneuil Hall, to which 
the gentleman has alluded. I said then, and say 
now, that, as an original question, the authority 
of Congress to exercise the revenue power, with 
direct reference to the protection of manufactures, 
is a questionable authority, far more questionable, 
in my judgment, than the power of Internal Im- 
provements. I must confess, sir, that in one 
respect, some impressions have been made on my 
opinions lately. Mr. Madison's pubhcatlon has 
put the power in a very strong light. He has 
placed it, I must acknowledge, upon grounds of 
construction and argument, which seem impreg- 
nable. But even If the power were doubtful, on 
the face of the Constitution Itself, it had been as- 
sumed and asserted in the first revenue law ever 
passed under that same Constitution; and, on this 
ground, as a matter settled by contemporaneous 
practice, I had refrained from expressing the opin- 
ion that the tariff laws transcended constitutional 
limits, as the gentleman supposes. What I did 
say at Faneuil Hall, as far as I now remember, 
was that this was originally matter of doubtful 



52 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

construction. The gentleman himself, I suppose, 
thinks there Is no doubt about It and that the laws 
are plainly against the Constitution. Mr. Madi- 
son's letters, already referred to, contain, in my 
judgment, by far the most able exposition extant 
of this part of the Constitution. He has satisfied 
me, so far as the practice of the government had 
left it an open question. With a great majority 
of the Representatives of Massachusetts, I voted 
against the tariff of 1824. My reasons were then 
given, and I will not now repeat them. But, not- 
withstanding our dissent, the great States of New 
York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky, went 
for the bill. In almost unbroken column, and it 
passed. Congress and the President sanctioned 
it, and It became the law of the land. What, 
then, were we to do? Our only option was, 
either to fall In with this settled course of public 
pohcy, and accommodate ourselves to It as well as 
we could, or to embrace the South Carolina doc- 
trine, and talk of nullifying the statute by State 
interference. 

The last alternative did not suit our principles, 
and, of course, we adopted the former. In 1827, 
the subject came again before Congress, on a 
proposition favorable to wool and woolens.. We 
looked upon the system of protection as being 
fixed and settled. . . . Because we had doubted 
about adopting the system, were we to refuse to 






DANIEL WEBSTER 53 

cure its manifest defects, after it became adopted, 
and when no one attempted Its repeal? And this, 
sir, is the inconsistency so much bruited. I had 
voted against the tariff of 1824 — but It passed; 
and In 1827 and 1828, I voted to amend It, in a 
point essential to the Interest of my constituents. 
Where is the inconsistency? . . . 

Sir, as to the general subject of the tariff, I have 
little now to say. ... I remarked the other 
day, that this policy did not begin with us in New 
England; and yet, sir. New England is charged, 
with vehemence, as being favorable, or charged 
with equal vehemence as being unfavorable, to 
the tariff policy, just as best suits the time, place, 
and occasion for making some charge against her. 
The credulity of the public has been put to its ex- 
treme capacity of false impression, relative to her 
conduct, in this particular. Through all the 
South, during the late contest, it was New England 
policy, and a New England administration, that 
was afflicting the country with a tariff beyond all 
endurance; while on the other side of the Alle- 
ghany, even the act of 1828 Itself, the very subli- 
mated essence of oppression, according to Southern 
opinions, was pronounced to be one of those bless- 
ings, for which the West was Indebted to the 
** generous South.'' 

With large investments In manufacturing es- 
tablishments, and many and various Interests con- 



54 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

nected with and dependent upon them, It is not 
to be expected that New England, any more than 
other portions of the country, will now consent 
to any measure destructive or highly dangerous. 
The duty of the government, at the present mo- 
ment, would seem to be to preserve, not to de- 
stroy; to maintain the position which It has as- 
sumed; and for one I shall feel It an Indispensable 
obligation to hold It steady, as far as In my power, 
to that degree of protection which it has under- 
taken to bestow. No more of the tariff. 

Professing to be provoked, by what he chose to 
consider a charge made by me against South Caro- 
lina, the honorable member, Mr. President, has 
taken up a new crusade against New England. 
. . . For a good long hour or two, we had 
the unbroken pleasure of listening to the honora- 
ble member, while he recited, with his usual grace 
and spirit, and with evident high gusto, speeches, 
pamphlets, addresses, and all the ** et ceteras " 
of the political press, such as warm heads produce 
In warm times; and such as It would be " discom- 
fiture " Indeed, for any one, whose taste did not 
delight In that sort of reading, to be obliged to 
peruse. This Is his war. This Is to carry the 
war Into the enemy's country. It Is In invasion 
of this sort, that he flatters himself with the ex- 
pectation of gaining laurels fit to adorn a Sena- 
tor's brow ! 



DANIEL WEBSTER 55 

. . . Let me observe, that the euloglum 
pronounced on the character of the State of 
South Carolina, by the honorable gentleman, 
for her revolutionary and other merits, meets 
my hearty concurrence. I shall not acknowl- 
edge that the honorable member goes be- 
fore me In regard for whatever of distinguished 
talent, or distinguished character, South Carolina 
has produced. I claim part of the honor, I par- 
take In the pride, of her great names. I claim 
them for countrymen, one and all. . . . When 
I shall be found, sir, In my place here, In the Sen- 
ate, or elsewhere, to sneer at public merit because 
It happens to spring up beyond the little limits of 
my own State or neighborhood; when I refuse, 
for any such cause, or for any cause, the homage 
due to American talent, to elevated patriotism, to 
sincere devotion to liberty, and the country; or, 
If I see an uncommon endowment of Heaven — 
if I see extraordinary capacity and virtue In any 
son of the South — and if, moved by local preju- 
dice, or gangrened by State jealousy, I get up here 
to abate the tithe of a hair from his just character 
and just fame, may my tongue cleave to the roof 
of my mouth ! 

Sir, ... let me remind you that In early times, 
no States cherished greater harmony, both of 
principle and feeling, than Massachusetts and 
South Carolina. Would to God that harmony 



56 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

might again return! Shoulder to shoulder they 
went through the Revolution, hand In hand they 
stood round the administration of Washington, 
and felt his own great arm lean on them for sup- 
port. Unkind feeling, if it exist, alienation 
and distrust, are the growth, unnatural to such 
soils, of false principles since sown. They are 
weeds, the seeds of which that same great arm 
never scattered. 

Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium 
upon Massachusetts — she needs none. There 
she Is — behold her, and judge for yourselves. 
There Is her history : the world knows It by heart. 
The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston, 
and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill — 
and there they will remain forever. The bones 
of her sons, falling in the great struggle for Inde- 
pendence, now He mingled with the soil of every 
State, from New England to Georgia; and there 
they will lie forever. And, sir, where American 
Liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth 
was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives. In 
the strength of its manhood and full of its original 
spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound It — 
if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at 
and tear it — if folly and madness — if uneasi- 
ness, under salutary and necessary restraint — 
shall succeed to separate it from that Union, by 
which alone Its existence is made sure, it will 



DANIEL WEBSTER 57 

stand, In the end, by the side of that cradle In 
which Its Infancy was rocked: It will stretch forth 
Its arm with whatever of vigor It may still retain, 
over the friends who gather round it; and it will 
fall at last, if fall It must, amidst the proudest 
monuments of Its own glory, and on the very spot 
of Its origin. 

There yet remains to be performed, Mr. Presi- 
dent, by far the most grave and Important duty, 
which I feel to be devolved on me, by this occa- 
sion. It Is to state, and to defend, what I con- 
ceive to be the true principles of the Constitution 
under which we are here assembled. I might 
well have desired that so weighty a task should 
have fallen Into other and abler hands. I could 
have wished that It should have been executed by 
those whose character and experience give weight 
and Influence to their opinions, such as can not 
possibly belong to mine. But, sir, I have met 
the occasion, not sought it: and I shall proceed to 
state my own sentiments, without challenging for 
them any particular regard, with studied plain- 
ness, and as much precision as possible. 

I understand the honorable gentleman from 
South Carolina to maintain, that it is a right of 
the State legislatures to Interfere, whenever. In 
their judgment, this government transcends its 
constitutional limits, and to arrest the operation 
of Its laws. 



58 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

I understand him to maintain this right, as a 
right existing under the Constitution, not as a 
right to overthrow it on the ground of extreme 
necessity, such as would justify violent revolu- 
tion. 

I understand him to maintain an authority on 
the part of the States thus to interfere for the 
purpose of correcting the exercise of power by 
the General Government, of checking it, and of 
compelling It to conform to their opinion of the 
extent of its powers. 

I understand him to maintain that the ultimate 
power of judging of the constitutional extent of 
Its own authority Is not lodged exclusively In the 
General Government, or any branch of it; but that, 
on the contrary, the States may lawfully decide 
for themselves, and each State for itself, whether 
In a given case the act of the General Government 
transcends its power. 

I understand him to insist that If the exigency 
of the case. In the opinion of any State govern- 
ment, require It, such State government may, by 
its own sovereign authority, annul an act of the 
General Government which it deems plainly and 
palpably unconstitutional. 

This is the sum of what I understand from him 
to be the South Carolina doctrine, and the doc- 
trine which he maintains. I propose to consider 
it, and compare it with the Constitution. Allow 



DANIEL WEBSTER 59 

me to say, as a preliminary remark, that I call 
this the South Carolina doctrine only because the 
gentleman himself has so denominated It. I do 
not feel at liberty to say that South Carolina, as a 
State, has ever advanced these sentiments. I hope 
she has not, and never may. That a great ma- 
jority of her people are opposed to the tariff laws, 
is doubtless true. That a majority somewhat less 
than that just mentioned, conscientiously believe 
these laws unconstitutional, may probably also be 
true. But that any majority holds to the right of 
direct State interference, at State discretion, — the 
right of nullifying acts of Congress by acts of 
State legislation, — Is more than I know, and 
what I shall be slow to believe. 

What he contends for Is, that it is constitutional 
to interrupt the administration of the Constitu- 
tion Itself, In the hands of those who are chosen 
and sworn to administer It, by the direct Interfer- 
ence, in form of law, of the State, in virtue of their 
sovereign capacity. The inherent right In the 
people to reform the government I do not deny: 
and they have another right, and that is, to resist 
unconstitutional laws without overturning the gov- 
ernment. It is no doctrine of mine that uncon- 
stitutional laws bind the people. The great ques- 
tion is, whose prerogative Is it to decide on the 
constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the laws? 



6o NOTED SPEECHES OF 

On that the main debate hinges. The proposi- 
tion that, in case of a supposed violation of the 
Constitution by Congress, the States have a con- 
stitutional right to interfere and annul the law of 
Congress, is the proposition of the gentleman: I 
do not admit it. If the gentleman had intended 
no more than to assert the right of revolution for 
justifiable cause, he would have said only what all 
agree to. But I can not conceive that there can 
be a middle course between submission to the laws 
when regularly pronounced constitutional, on the 
one hand, and open resistance, — which is revolu- 
tion, or rebellion, — on the other. I say, the right 
of a State to annul a law of Congress can not be 
maintained but on the ground of the unalienable 
right of man to resist oppression; that Is to say, 
upon the ground of revolution. I admit that 
there is an ultimate violent remedy, above the 
Constitution and in defiance of the Constitution, 
which may be resorted to when a revolution is to 
be justified. But I do not admit that, under the 
Constitution, and In conformity with It, there Is 
any mode In which a State government, as a mem- 
ber of the Union, can Interfere and stop the 
progress of the General Government, by force 
of her own laws, under any circumstances what- 
ever. 

This leads us to Inquire Into the origin of this 
government, and the source of Its power. Whose 



DAIS! I EL WEBSTER 6i 

agent is it? Is it the creature of the State legisla- 
tures, or the creature of the people? If the Gov- 
ernment of the United States be the agent of the 
State governments, then they may control it, pro- 
vided they can agree in the manner of controlling 
it; if it be the agent of the people, then the people 
alone can control it, restrain it, modify or reform 
it. It is observable enough, that the doctrine for 
which the honorable gentleman contends, leads 
him to the necessity of maintaining, not only that 
this General Government is the creature of the 
States, but that it is the creature of each of 
the States severally; so that each may assert the 
power, for itself, of determining whether it acts 
within the limits of its authority. It is the serv- 
ant of four and twenty masters, of different wills 
and different purposes, and yet bound to obey all. 
This absurdity (for it seems no less) arises from 
a misconception as to the origin of this govern- 
ment and its true character. It is, sir, the people's 
Constitution, the people's government; made for 
the people; made by the people; and answerable 
to the people. The people of the United States 
have declared that this Constitution shall be the 
supreme law. We must either admit the propo- 
sition, or dispute their authority. The States are, 
unquestionably, sovereign so far as their sover- 
eignty is not affected by this supreme law. But 
the State legislatures as political bodies, however 



62 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

sovereign, are yet not sovereign over the people. 
So far as the people have given power to the Gen- 
eral Government, so far the grant is unquestion- 
ably good, and the government holds of the people 
and not of the State governments. We are all 
agents of the same supreme power, the people; 
The General Government and the State govern- 
ments derive their authority from the same source. 
Neither can, in relation to the other, be called 
primary, though one is definite and restricted and 
the other general and residuary. The National 
Government possesses those powers which It can 
be shown the people have conferred on it, and no 
more. All the rest belongs to the State govern- 
ments or to the people themselves. So far as the 
people have restrained State sovereignty, by the 
expression of their will in the Constitution of 
the United States, so far It must be admitted State 
sovereignty is effectually controlled. I do not 
contend that it is, or ought to be, controlled 
farther. The sentiment to which I have referred 
proposes that State sovereignty Is only to be con- 
trolled by its own " feeling of justice ": that is to 
say, it is not to be controlled at all; for one who 
is to follow his own feelings is under no legal 
control. Now, however men may think this 
ought to be, the fact is that the people of the 
United States have chosen to impose control on 
State sovereignties. There are those, doubtless. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 63 

who wish they had been left without restraint; 
but the Constitution has ordered the matter dif- 
ferently. To make war, for instance, is an exer- 
cise of sovereignty; but the Constitution declares 
that no State shall make war. To coin money is 
another exercise of sovereign power; but no State 
is at liberty to coin money. Again, the Constitu- 
tion says that no sovereign State shall be so sover- 
eign as to make a treaty. These prohibitions, it 
must be confessed, are a control on the State sover- 
eignty of South Carolina, as well as of the other 
States, which does not arise " from her own feel- 
ings of honorable justice." Such an opinion, 
therefore, is in defiance of the plainest provisions 
of the Constitution. 

In Carolina the tariff is a palpable, deliberate 
usurpation; Carolina, therefore, may nullify It, 
and refuse to pay the duties. In Pennsylvania It 
Is both clearly constitutional and highly expedient; 
and there the duties are to be paid. And yet we 
live under a government of uniform laws, and 
under a Constitution, too, which contains an ex- 
press provision, as it happens, that all duties shall 
be equal In all the States. Does not this approach 
absurdity? 

If there be no power to settle such questions. 
Independent of either of the States, Is not the 
whole Union a rope of sand? Are we not thrown 



64 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

back again precisely upon the old Confederation? 
It is too plain to be argued. Four and twenty 
interpreters of constitutional law, each with a 
power to decide for itself, and none with author- 
ity to bind anybody else, and this constitutional 
law the only bond of their Union! What is 
such a state of things but a mere connection dur- 
ing pleasure or, to use the phraseology of the 
times, during feeling? And that feeling, too, not 
the feeling of the people, who established the Con- 
stitution, but the feehng of the State govern- 
ments. 

And now, sir, what I have first to say on this 
subject is, that, at no time, and under no circum- 
stances, has New England, or any State in New 
England, or any respectable body of persons in 
New England, or any public man of standing in 
New England, put forth such a doctrine as this 
Carolina doctrine. ... 

No doubt, sir, a great majority of the people of 
New England conscientiously believed the Em- 
bargo Law of 1807 unconstitutional; as conscien- 
tiously, certainly, as the people of South Carolina' 
hold that opinion of the tariff. . . . How did 
Massachusetts deal with it? It was, as she 
thought, a plain, manifest, palpable violation of 
the Constitution, and it brought ruin to her doors. 
Thousands of families, and hundreds of thou- 



DANIEL WEBSTER 65 

sands of Individuals, were beggared by It. While 
she saw and felt all this, she saw and felt, also, 
that as a measure of national policy It was per- 
fectly futile; that the country was no way bene- 
fited by that which caused so much individual 
distress; that it was efficient only for the produc- 
tion of evil, and all that evil inflicted on ourselves. 
In such a case, under such circumstances, how did 
Massachusetts demean herself? Sir, she remon- 
strated, she memorialized, she addressed herself 
to the General Government, not exactly " with the 
concentrated energy of passion," but with her own 
strong sense, and the energy of sober conviction. 
But she did not Interpose the arm of her own 
power to arrest the law, and break the embargo. 
Far from It. Her principles bound her to two 
things; and she followed her principles, lead 
where they might. First, to submit to every con- 
stitutional law of Congress; and secondly, If the 
constitutional validity of the law be doubted, to 
refer that question to the decision of the proper 
tribunals. ... 

Being fully of opinion that the Embargo Law 
was unconstitutional, the people of New Eng- 
land were yet equally clear in the opinion — It 
was a matter they did not doubt upon — that the 
question, after all, must be decided by the judicial 
tribunals of the United States. Before those tri- 
bunals, therefore, they brought the question. . . . 



66 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

The established tribunals pronounced the law con- 
stitutional, and New England acquiesced. Now, 
sir. Is not this the exact opposite of the doctrine 
of the gentleman from South Carolina? . . . 

I wish now, sir, to make a remark upon the Vir- 
ginia Resolutions of 1798. I can not undertake 
to say how these resolutions were understood by 
those who passed them. Their language Is not a 
little indefinite. In the case of the exercise by 
Congress, of a dangerous power, not granted to 
them, the resolutions assert the right on the part 
of the State to Interfere and arrest the progress 
of the evil. This Is susceptible of more than one 
interpretation. It may mean no more than that 
the States may Interfere by complaint and remon- 
strance, or by proposing to the people an altera- 
tion of the Federal Constitution. This would all 
be quite unobjectionable. Or It may be that no 
more Is meant than to assert the general right of 
revolution, as against all governments. In cases 
of Intolerable oppression. This no one doubts; 
and this. In my opinion. Is all that he who framed 
the resolutions [Mr. Madison] could have meant 
by It: for I shall not readily believe that he was 
ever of opinion that a State, under the Constitu- 
tion and In conformity with It, could upon the 
ground of her own opinion of its unconstitution- 
ality, however clear and palpable she might think 
the case, annul a law of Congress so far as It 



DANIEL WEBSTER 67 

should operate on herself by her own legislative 
power. 

I must now beg to ask, sir, whence is this sup- 
posed right of the States derived? — where do 
they find the power to interfere with the laws of 
the Union? Sir, the opinion which the honor- 
able gentleman maintains Is a notion, founded In 
a total misapprehension, In my judgment, of the 
origin of this government, and of the foundation 
on which It stands. I hold It to be a popular gov- 
ernment, erected by the people; those who ad- 
minister It, responsible to the people; and itself 
capable of being amended and modified, just as 
the people may choose It should be. It Is as pop- 
ular, just as truly emanating from the people, as 
the State governments. It is created for one pur- 
pose; the State governments for another. It has 
Its own powers; they have theirs. There Is no 
more authority with them to arrest the operation 
of a law of Congress, than with Congress to ar- 
rest the operation of their laws. We are here to 
administer a Constitution emanating Immediately 
from the people, and trusted by them to our ad- 
ministration. It is not the creature of the State 
governments. It Is of no moment to the argu- 
ment, that certain acts of the State legislatures are 
necessary to fill our seats In this body. That Is 
not one of their original State powers, a part of 
the sovereignty of the State. It is a duty which 



68 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

the people, by the Constitution Itself, have Im- 
posed on the State legislatures; and which they 
might have left to be performed elsewhere, if they 
had seen fit. So they have left the choice of 
President with electors; but all this does not 
affect the proposition, that this whole government 
— President, Senate, and House of Representa- 
tives — is a popular government. It leaves it 
still all its popular character. The governor of a 
State (in some of the States) is chosen, not di- 
rectly by the people, but by those who are chosen 
by the people, for the purpose of performing 
among other duties that of electing a governor. 
Is the government of the State, on that account, 
not a popular government? This government, 
sir, is the independent offspring of the popular 
will. It Is not the creature of State legislatures; 
nay, more, if the whole truth must be told, the 
people brought it into existence, established it, 
and have hitherto supported it, for the very pur- 
pose, amongst others, of imposing certain salu- 
tary restraints on State sovereignties. The States 
can not now make war; they can not contract 
alliances; they can not make, each for Itself, sepa- 
rate regulations of commerce; they can not lay 
Imposts; they can not coin money. If this Con- 
stitution, sir, be the creature of State legislatures, 
it must be admitted that It has obtained a strange 
^control over the volitions of its creators. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 69 

The people then, sir, erected this government. 
They gave It a Constitution, and In that Constitu- 
tion they have enumerated the powers which they 
bestow on It. They have made It a limited 
government. They have defined Its authority. 
They have restrained It to the exercise of such 
powers as are granted; and all others, they de- 
clare, are reserved to the States, or the people. 
But, sir, they have not stopped here. If they had, 
they would have accomplished but half their work. 
No definition can be so clear, as to avoid possi- 
bility of doubt; no limitation so precise, as to ex- 
clude all uncertainty. Who, then, shall construe 
this grant of the people? Who shall Interpret 
their will, where It may be supposed they have left 
It doubtful? With whom do they repose this ulti- 
mate right of deciding on the powers of the gov- 
ernment? Sir, they have settled all this In the 
fullest manner. They have left It with the gov- 
ernment Itself, In Its appropriate branches. Sir, 
the very chief end, the main design, for which the 
whole Constitution was framed and adopted, was 
to establish a government that should not be 
obliged to act through State agency, or depend 
on State opinion and State discretion. The peo- 
ple had had quite enough of that kind of govern- 
ment, under the Confederacy. Under that 
system, the legal action — the application of law 
to Individuals — belonged exclusively to the 



70 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

States. Congress could only recommend — 
their acts were not of binding force till the States 
had adopted and sanctioned them. Are we in 
that condition still? Are we yet at the mercy of 
State discretion, and State construction? Sir, If 
we are, then vain will be our attempt to maintain 
the Constitution under which we sit. 

But, sir, the people have wisely provided, In 
the Constitution Itself, a proper, suitable mode 
and tribunal for settling questions of constitu- 
tional law. There are, In the Constitution, 
grants of powers to Congress; and restrictions on 
these powers. There are, also, prohibitions on 
the States. Some authority must, therefore, 
necessarily exist, having the ultimate jurisdiction 
to fix and ascertain the interpretation of these 
grants, restrictions, and prohibitions. The Con- 
stitution has itself pointed out, ordained, and 
established that authority. How has it accom- 
plished this great and essential end? By declaring, 
sir, that " the Constitution and the laws of the 
United States, made In pursuance thereof, shall be 
the supreme law of the land, anything in the con- 
stitution or laws of any State to the contrary not- 
withstanding." 

This, sir, Vv^as the first great step. By this the 
supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the 
United States is declared. The people so will it. 
No State law is to be valid, which comes in con- 



DANIEL PFEBSTER 71 

flict with the Constitution, or any law of the 
United States passed in pursuance of It. But who 
shall decide this question of Interference? To 
whom lies the last appeal? This, sir, the Con- 
stitution Itself decides, also, by declaring, " that 
the judicial power shall extend to all cases arising 
under the Constitution and laws of the United 
States." These two provisions, sir, cover the 
whole ground. They are. In truth, the keystone 
of the arch. With these It Is a constitution; with- 
out them It Is a confederacy. In pursuance of 
these clear and express provisions. Congress estab- 
lished, at its very first session, In the judicial act, 
a mode for carrying them Into full effect, and for 
bringing all questions of constitutional power to 
the final decision of the Supreme Court. It then, 
sir, became a government. It then had the means 
.of self-protection; and, but for this. It would. In 
all probability, have been now among things 
which are past. Having constituted the govern- 
ment, and declared Its powers, the people have 
further said, that since somebody must decide on 
the extent of these powers, the government shall 
Itself decide; subject, always, like other popular 
governments, to Its responsibility to the people. 
And now, sir, I repeat, how Is It that a State legis- 
lature acquires any power to interfere? Who, or 
what, gives them the right to say to the people, 
" We, who are your agents and servants for one 



72 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

purpose, will undertake to decide that your other 
agents and servants, appointed by you for another 
purpose have transcended the authority you gave 
them ! " The reply would be, I think, not im- 
pertinent: "Who made you a judge over an- 
other's servants? To their own masters they 
stand or fall." 

And now, Mr. President, let me run the honor- 
able gentleman's doctrine a little into its practical 
application. Let us look at his probable modus 
operandi [mode of operation]. If a thing can 
be done, an ingenious man can tell how it is to be 
done. Now I wish to be informed, how this 
State Interference Is to be put in practice without 
violence, bloodshed, and rebellion. We will take 
the existing case of the tariff law. South Caro- 
lina Is said to have made up her opinion upon It. 
If we do not repeal It (as we probably shall not), 
she will then apply to the case the remedy of her 
doctrine. She will, we must suppose, pass a law 
of her legislature, declaring the several acts of 
Congress, usually called the tariff laws, null and 
void, so far as they respect South Carolina, or the 
citizens thereof. So far, all Is a paper trans- 
action, and easy enough. But the collector at 
Charleston Is collecting the duties Imposed by 
these tariff laws: he therefore must be stopped. 
The collector will seize the goods If the tariff 



DANIEL WEBSTER 73 

duties are not paid. The State authorities will 
undertake their rescue; the marshal, with his 
posse, will come to the collector's aid, and here 
the contest begins. The militia of the State will 
be called out to sustain the nullifying act. They 
will march, sir, under a very gallant leader: for I 
believe the honorable member himself commands 
the militia of that part of the State. He will 
raise the nullifying act on his standard, and spread 
it out as his banner! It will have a preamble, 
bearing, That the tariff laws are palpable, deliber- 
ate, and dangerous violations of the Constitu- 
tion ! He will proceed with this banner flying to 
the custom-house at Charleston : 

"All the while, 
Sonorous metal, blowing martial sounds." 

Arrived at the custom-house, he will tell the 
collector that he must collect no more duties under 
any of the tariff laws. This he will be somewhat 
puzzled to say, by the way, with a grave counte- 
nance, considering what hand South Carolina her- 
self had in that of 18 16. But, sir, the collector 
would probably not desist at his bidding. He 
would show him the law of Congress, the treasury 
Instruction, and his own oath of office. He 
would say, he should perform his duty, come what 
might. Here would ensue a pause : for they say 
that a certain stillness precedes the tempest. The 



74 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

trumpeter would hold his breath awhile, and be- 
fore all this military array should fall on the cus- 
tom-house, collector, clerks, and all. It is very 
probable some of those composing it would re- 
quest of their gallant commander-in-chief to be 
Informed a httle upon the point of law; for they 
have, doubtless, a just respect for his opinions as 
a lawyer, as well as for his bravery as a soldier. 
They know he has read Blackstone and the Con- 
stitution, as well as Turrene and Vauban [writers 
on military science]. They would ask him, there- 
fore, something concerning their rights in this 
matter. They would inquire, whether it was not 
somewhat dangerous to resist a law of the United 
States. What would be the nature of their 
offense, they would wish to learn, if they by mili- 
tary force and array resisted the execution In 
Carolina of a law of the United States, and it 
should turn out after all that the law was consti- 
tutional? He would answer, of course, treason. 
No lawyer could give any other answer. John 
Fries [leader of a rebellion In Pennsylvania, In 
1799, against a direct tax levied by Congress], he 
would tell them, had learned that some years ago. 
How, then, they would ask, do you propose to 
defend us? We are not afraid of bullets, but 
treason has a way of taking people off that we do 
not much relish. How do you propose to defend 
us? "Look at my floating banner," he would 



DANIEL WEBSTER 75 

reply; " see there the nullifying law! " Is It your 
opinion, gallant commander, they would then say, 
that if we should be indicted for treason, that 
same floating banner of yours would make a good 
plea in bar? "South Carolina is a sovereign 
State," he would reply. That is true — but 
would the judge admit our plea? "These tariff 
laws,'' he would repeat, " are unconstitutional, 
palpably, deliberately, dangerously." That all 
may be so; but if the tribunal should not happen 
to be of that opinion, shall we swing for it? We 
are ready to die for our country, but it is rather 
an awkward business, this dying without touching 
the ground ! After all, that is a sort of hemp tax, 
worse than any part of the tariff. 

Mr. President, the honorable gentleman would 
be in a dilemma, like that of another, great gen- 
eral [Alexander the Great]. He would have a 
knot before him which he could not untie. He 
must cut it with his sword. He must say to his 
followers, defend yourselves with your bayonets; 
and this is war — civil war. 

Direct collision, therefore, between force and 
force is the unavoidable result of that remedy for 
the revision of unconstitutional laws which the 
gentleman contends for. It must happen in the 
very first case to which it is applied. Is not this 
the plain result? To rei^ist, by force, the execu- 
tion of a law generally is treason. Can the courts 



76 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

of the United States take notice of the indulgence 
of a State to commit treason? The common say- 
ing that a State can not commit treason herself is 
nothing to the purpose. Can she authorize others 
to do it? If John Fries had produced an act of 
Pennsylvania annulling the law of Congress, 
would it have helped his case? Talk about it as 
we will, these doctrines go the length of the revo- 
lution. They are incompatible with any peace- 
able administration of the government. They 
lead directly to disunion and civil commotion; and, 
therefore, it is, that at their commencement, when 
they are first found to be maintained by respect- 
able men, and in a tangible form, I enter my pub- 
lic protest against them all. 

The honorable gentleman argues, that if this 
government be the sole judge of the extent of its 
own powers, whether that right of judging be in 
Congress or the Supreme Court, it equally sub- 
verts State sovereignty. This the gentleman sees, 
or thinks he sees, although he can not perceive 
how the right of judging in this matter, if left to 
the exercise of State legislatures, has any tend- 
ency to subvert the government of the Union. 
The gentleman's opinion may be that the right 
ought not to have been lodged with the General 
Government; he may like better such a constitu- 
tion as we should have under the right of State 
interference: but I ask him to meet me on the 



DANIEL WEBSTER 77 

plain matter of fact; I ask him to meet me on the 
Constitution itself; I ask him if the power is not 
found there — clearly and visibly found there? 
But, sir, what is this danger, and what the grounds 
of it? Let it be remembered that the Constitu- 
tion of the United States Is not unalterable. It 
Is to continue In its present form no longer than 
the people who established it shall choose to con- 
tinue It. If they shall become convinced that they 
have made an Injudicious or inexpedient partition 
and distribution of power between the State gov- 
ernments and the General Government, they can 
alter that distribution at will. 

If anything be found in the national Constitu- 
tion, either by original provision or subsequent in- 
terpretation, which ought not to be In It, the peo- 
ple know how to get rid of it. If any construction 
be established unacceptable to them, so as to 
become practically a part of the Constitution, they 
will amend It at their own sovereign pleasure: but 
while the people choose to maintain It as It is, — 
while they are satisfied with it and refuse to change 
it, — who has given, or who can give, to the State 
legislatures a right to alter It, either by interfer- 
ence, construction, or otherwise? Gentlemen do 
not seem to recollect that the people have any 
power to do anything for themselves; they Im- 
agine there Is no safety for them, any longer than 
they are under the close guardianship of the State 



78 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

legislatures. Sir, the people have not trusted 
their safety, In regard to the general Constitution, 
to these hands. They have required other secur- 
ity, and taken other bonds. They have chosen to 
trust themselves, first, to the plain words of the 
Instrument, and to such construction as the govern- 
ment itself, in doubtful cases, should put on Its 
own powers, under their oaths of office and sub- 
ject to their responsibility to them: just as the 
people of a State trust their own State govern- 
ments with a similar power. Secondly, they have 
reposed their trust in the efficacy of frequent elec- 
tions, and in their own power to remove their 
own servants and agents, whenever they see cause. 
Thirdly, they have reposed trust In the judicial 
power, which in order that it might be trust- 
worthy, they have made as respectable, as disin- 
terested, and as independent as was practicable. 
Fourthly, they have seen fit to rely, in case of 
necessity or high expediency, on their known and 
admitted power to alter or amend the Consti- 
tution, peaceably and quietly, whenever experi- 
ence shall point out defects or imperfections. 
And finally, the people of the United States have 
at no time, in no way, directly or indirectly, au- 
thorized any State legislature to construe or in- 
terpret their high Instrument of government; 
much less to interfere, by their own power, to 
arrest its course and operation. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 79 

If, sir, the people, In these respects, had done 
otherwise than they have done, their Constitution 
could neither have been preserved, nor would it 
have been worth preserving. And if its plain 
provisions shall now be disregarded, and these 
new doctrines interpolated in it, it will become as 
feeble and helpless a being as Its enemies, whether 
early or more recent, could possibly desire. It 
will exist In every State, but as a poor dependent 
on State permission. It must borrow leave to 
be; and will be no longer than State pleasure, or 
State discretion, sees fit to grant the indulgence 
and to prolong its poor existence. 

But, sir, although there are fears, there are 
hopes also. The people have preserved this, 
their own chosen Constitution, for forty years, 
and have seen their happiness, prosperity, and 
renown, grow with its growth, and strengthen with 
its strength. They are now, generally, strongly 
attached to It. Overthrown by direct assault. It 
can not be; evaded, undermined, nullified. It will 
not be, if we, and those who shall succeed us 
here as agents and representatives of the people, 
shall conscientiously and vigilantly discharge the 
two great branches of our public trust — faith- 
fully to preserve and wisely to administer It. 

Mr. President, I have thus stated the reasons 
of my dissent to the doctrines which have been 
advanced and maintained. I am conscious of 



8o NOTED SPEECHES OF 

having detained you and the Senate much too 
long. I was drawn Into the debate, with no pre- 
vious dehberatlon as Is suited to the discus- 
sion of so grave and Important a subject. But it 
Is a subject of which my heart is full, and I have 
not been willing to suppress the utterance of its 
spontaneous sentiments. I can not, even now, 
persuade myself to relinquish it without express- 
ing once more my deep conviction that, since It 
respects nothing less than the union of the States, 
it is of most vital and essential importance 
to the public happiness. I profess, sir, in my ca- 
reer hitherto to have kept steadily in view the 
prosperity and honor of the whole country, and 
the preservation of our Federal Union. It is to 
that Union we owe our safety at home, and our 
consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that 
Union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever 
makes us most proud of our country. That 
Union we reached only by the discipline of our 
virtues In the severe school of adversity. It had 
its origin In the necessities of disordered finance, 
prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under 
Its benign influence, these great interests immedi- 
ately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth 
with newness of life. Every year of its duration 
has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and 
its blessings; and although our territory has 
stretched out wider and wider, and our popula- 



DANIEL WEBSTER 8i 

tlon spread farther and farther, they have not 
outrun Its protection or Its benefits. It has been 
to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and 
personal happiness. I have not allowed myself, 
sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might 
lie hidden In the dark recess behind. I have not 
coolly weighed the chances of preserving lib- 
erty when the bonds that unite us together shall 
be broken asunder. I have not accustomed my- 
self to hang over the precipice of disunion, to 
see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom 
the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard 
him as a safe counselor In the affairs of this 
government whose thoughts should be mainly 
bent on considering, not how the Union should 
be best preserved, but how tolerable might be 
the condition of the people when It shall be 
broken up and destroyed. 

While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, 
gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us 
and our children. Beyond that I seek not to 
penetrate the veil. God grant that. In my day 
at least, that curtain may not rise. God grant, 
that on my vision never may be opened what lies 
behind. When my eyes shall be turned to be- 
hold, for the last time, the sun in Heaven, 
may I not see him shining on the broken and dis- 
honored fragments of a once glorious Union; on 
States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a 



82 DANIEL WEBSTER 

land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, It may be, 
In fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and 
lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous en- 
sign of the Republic, now known and honored 
throughout the earth, still full high advanced. Its 
arms and trophies streaming In their original lus- 
ter, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single 
star obscured — bearing for Its motto, no such 
miserable Interrogatory as, What Is all this 
worth? Nor those other words of delusion and 
folly. Liberty first, and Union afterwards — but 
everywhere, spread all over In characters of liv- 
ing light, blazing on all Its ample folds, as they 
float over the sea and over the land, and In every 
wind under the whole heavens, that other senti- 
ment, dear to every true American heart — Lib- 
erty and Union, now and forever, one and 
Inseparable! 



ON THE CONSTITUTION AND 
THE UNION 

Delivered in the United States Senate, March 

7, 1850. 

Mr. President: — I wish to speak to-day, 
not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a northern 
man, but as an American, and a member of the 
Senate of the United States. It is fortunate that 
there is a Senate of tRe United States; a body not 
yet moved from its propriety, nor lost to a just 
sense of its own dignity and its own high respon- 
sibilities, and a body to which the country looks, 
with confidence, for wise, moderate, patriotic, 
and healing counsels. It is not to be denied that 
we live in the midst of strong agitations and 
are surrounded by very considerable dangers to 
our institutions and government. The impris- 
oned winds are let loose. The East, the North, 
and the stormy South combine to throw the whole 
sea into commotion, to toss its billows to the 
skies, and disclose its profoundest depths. I 
do not affect to regard myself, Mr. President, 
as holding, or fit to hold, the helm in this combat 

83 



84 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

with the political elements; but I have a duty 
to perform, and I mean to perform It with 
fidelity, not without a sense of existing dangers, 
but not without hope. I have a part to act, 
not for my own security or safety, for I am look- 
ing out for no fragment upon which to float 
away from the wreck, if wreck there must be, 
but for the good of the whole, and the preserva- 
tion of all; and there is that which will keep 
me to my duty during this struggle, whether the 
sun and the stars shall appear for many days. I 
speak to-day for the preservation of the Union. 
" Hear me for my cause." I speak to-day out 
of a solicitous and anxious heart, for the restora- 
tion to the country of that quiet and that harmony 
which make the blessings of this Union so 
rich, and so dear to us all. These are the topics 
that I propose to myself to discuss; these are the 
motives, and the sole motives, that influence me 
in the wish to communicate my opinions to the 
Senate and the country; and if I can do anything, 
however little, for the promotion of these ends, 
I shall have accomplished all that I expect. 

. . . We all know, sir, that slavery has ex- 
isted in the world from time immemorial. There 
was slavery in the earliest periods of history, 
among the Oriental nations. There was slavery 
among the Jews; the theocratic government of 
that people issued no injunction against it. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 85 

There was slavery among the Greeks; and the 
ingenious philosophy of the Greeks found, or 
sought to find, a justification for It exactly upon 
the grounds which have been assumed in this coun- 
try; that is, a natural and original difference 
among the races of mankind. ... At the intro- 
duction of Christianity, the Roman world was 
full of slaves, and I suppose there is to be 
found no injunction against that relation between 
man and man in the teachings of the Gospel 
of Jesus Christ or of any of his apostles. 
. . . Now, sir, upon the general nature and 
influence of slavery there exists a wide dif- 
ference of opinion between the northern portion 
of this country and the southern. It is said on 
the one side, that, although not the subject of 
any Injunction or direct prohibition in the New 
Testament, slavery is a wrong; that it is founded 
merely in the right of the strongest; and that 
it is an oppression, like unjust wars, like all those 
conflicts by which a powerful nation subjects a 
weaker to its will; and that, in its nature, what- 
ever may be said of it in the modifications 
which have taken place, it is not according to the 
meek spirit of the Gospel. It is not "kindly af- 
fectloned"; it does not "seek another's, and not 
its own"; it does not "let the oppressed go 
free." These are sentiments that are cherished, 
and of late with greatly augmented force, among 



86 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

the people of the Northern States. They have 
taken hold of the religious sentiment of that part 
of the country, as they have, more or less, taken 
hold of the religious feelings of a considerable 
portion of mankind. The South upon the other 
side, having been accustomed to this relation be- 
tween the two races all their lives; from their 
birth, having been taught, in general, to treat the 
subjects of this bondage with care and kindness, 
and I believe, in general, feeling great kindness 
for them, have not taken the view of the subject 
which I have mentioned. There are thousands 
of religious men, with consciences as tender as 
any of their brethren at the North, who do not 
see the unlawfulness of slavery; and there are 
more thousands, perhaps, that, whatsoever they 
may think of it in its origin, and as a matter de- 
pending upon natural rights, yet take things 
as they are, and, finding slavery to be an estab- 
lished relation of the society in which they 
live, can see no way in which, let their opinions on 
the abstract question be what they may, it is in 
the power of this generation to relieve themselves 
from this relation. And candor obliges me to 
say, that I believe they are just as conscientious, 
many of them, and the religious people, all of 
them, as they are at the North who hold differ- 
ent opinions. . . . 

There are men who, with clear perceptions, as 



DANIEL WEBSTER 87 

they think, of their own duty, do not see 
how too eager a pursuit of one duty may involve 
them In the violation of others, or how too 
warm an embracement of one truth may lead to 
a disregard of other truths just as Important. 
As I heard It stated strongly, not many days ago, 
these persons are disposed to mount upon some 
particular duty, as upon a war-horse, and to drive 
furiously on and upon and over all other duties 
that may stand In the way. There are men who. 
In reference to disputes of that sort, are of opinion 
that human duties may be ascertained with the 
exactness of mathematics. They deal with mor- 
als as with mathematics ;^ and they think what Is 
right may be distinguished from what Is wrong 
with the precision of an algebraic equation. 
They have, therefore, none too much charity to- 
ward others who differ from them. They are 
apt, too, to think that nothing Is good but what Is 
perfect, and that there are no compromises or 
modifications to be made In consideration of dif- 
ference of opinion or in deference to other men's 
judgment. If their perspicacious vision enables 
them to detect a spot on the face of the sun, they 
think that a good reason why the sun should be 
struck down from Heaven. They prefer the 
chance of running Into utter darkness to living 
In heavenly light, If that heavenly light be not 
absolutely without any Imperfection. There are 



88 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

impatient men; . . . too Impatient to wait for 
the slow progress of moral causes In the Im- 
provement of mankind. . . . 

But we must view things as they are. Slavery- 
does exist in the United States. It did exist in 
the States before the adoption of this Constitu- 
tion, and at that time. Let us, therefore, con- 
sider for a moment what was the state of 
sentiment, North and South, in regard to slav- 
ery, — in regard to slavery, at the time this 
Constitution was adopted. A remarkable change 
has taken place since; but what did the wise and 
great men of all parts of the country think of, 
slavery then? In what estimation did they hold 
it at the time when this Constitution was adopted? 
It will be found, sir, if we will carry ourselves by 
historical research back to that day, and ascertain 
men's opinions by authentic records still existing 
among us, that there was no diversity of opinion 
between the North and the South upon the subject 
of slavery. It will be found that both parts of 
the country held it equally an evil, a moral and 
political evil. It will not be found that, either 
at the North or at the South, there was much, 
though there was some, invective against 
slavery as inhuman and cruel. The great 
ground of objection to it was political; that it 
weakened the social fabric; that, taking the place 
of free labor, society became less strong and labor 



DANIEL WEBSTER 89 

less productive; and therefore we find from all 
the eminent men of the time the clearest expres- 
sion of their opinion that slavery is an evil. 
They ascribed Its existence here, not without truth, 
and not without some acerbity of temper and 
force of language, to the Injurious policy of 
the mother country, who, to favor the navigator, 
had entailed these evils upon the colonies. . . . 
You observe, sir, that the term slave, or slavery, 
is not used in the Constitution. The Constitu- 
tion does not require that '' fugitive slaves " shall 
be delivered up. It requires that persons held 
to service in one State, and escaping into another, 
shall be delivered up. Mr. Madison opposed 
the introduction of the term slave, or slavery, 
Into the Constitution ; for he said, that he dici 
not wish to see It recognized by the Constitution 
of the United States of America that there could 
be property in men. . . . 

Here we may pause. There was, if not an 
entire unanimity, a general concurrence of senti- 
ment running through the whole community, and 
especially entertained by the eminent men of all 
parts of the country. But soon a change began, 
at the North and the South, and a difference of 
opinion showed itself; the North growing much 
more warm and strong against slavery, and the 
South growing much more warm and strong in 
its support. Sir, there is no generation of man- 



go NOTED SPEECHES OF 

kind whose opinions are not subject to be Influ- 
enced by what appear to them to be their present 
emergent and exigent interests. I Impute to 
the South no particularly selfish view In the change 
which has come over her. I Impute to her cer- 
tainly no dishonest view. All that has happened 
has been natural. It has followed those causes 
which always influence the human mind and op- 
erate upon it. What, then, have been the causes 
which have created so new a feeling In favor of 
slavery In the South, which have changed the 
whole nomenclature of the South on that subject, 
so that, from being thought and described In the 
terms I have mentioned and will not repeat, It has 
now become an Institution, a cherished institution. 
In that quarter; no evil, no scourge, but a great re- 
ligious, social, and moral blessing, as I think I 
have heard It latterly spoken of? I suppose this, 
sir, is owing to the rapid growth and sudden ex- 
tension of the cotton plantations of the South. 
So far as any motive consistent with honor, justice, 
and general judgment could act, it was the cotton 
Interest that gave a new desire to promote slav- 
ery, to spread It, and to use Its labor. I again 
say that this change was produced by causes which 
must always produce like effects. The whole In- 
terest of the South became connected, more or 
less, with the extension of slavery. If we look 
back to the history of the commerce of this coun- 



DANIEL WEBSTER 91 

try in the early years of this government, what 
were our exports? Cotton was hardly, or but 
to a very limited extent, known. In 1791 the 
first parcel of cotton of the growth of the United 
States was exported, and amounted only to 19,- 
200 pounds. It has gone on Increasing rapidly, 
until the w^hole crop may now, perhaps, in a sea- 
son of great product and high prices, amount 
to a hundred millions of dollars. In the years I 
have mentioned, there was more of wax, more of 
Indigo, more of rice, more of almost every article 
of export from the South, than of cotton. When 
Mr. Jay negotiated the treaty of 1794 with Eng- 
land, it is evident from the Twelfth Article of 
the Treaty, which was suspended by the Senate, 
that he did not know that cotton was exported 
at all from the United States. 

Well, sir, we know what followed. The age 
of cotton became the golden age of our Southern 
brethren. It gratified their desire for improve- 
ment and accumulation, at the same time that It 

excited It. 

• •■••••• 

Sir, there Is not so remarkable a chapter in 
our history of political events, political parties, 
and political men as Is afforded by this admis- 
sion of a new slave-holding territory, so vast that 
a bird cannot fly over It In a week. New Eng- 
land, as I have said, with some of her own votes, 



92 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

supported this measure. Three-fourths of the 
votes of Hberty-loving Connecticut were given for 
it in the other house, and one half here. There 
was one vote for it from Maine but, I am happy 
to say, not the vote of the honorable member who 
addressed the Senate the day before yesterday, 
and who was then a Representative from Maine 
in the House of Representatives; but there was 
one vote from Maine, aye, and there was one vote 
for it from Massachusetts, given by a gentleman 
then representing, and now living in, the district 
in which the prevalence of Free Soil sentiment 
for a couple of years or so has defeated the choice 
of any member to represent it in Congress. Sir, 
that body of Northern and Eastern men who gave 
those votes at that time are now seen taking upon 
themselves, in the nomenclature of politics, the 
appellation of the Northern Democracy. They 
undertook to wield the destinies of this empire, if 
I may give that name to a Republic, and their 
policy was, and they persisted in it, to bring into 
this country and under this government all the ter- 
ritory they could. They did it, in the case 
of Texas, under pledges, absolute pledges, to the 
slave interest, and they afterwards lent their aid in 
bringing in these new conquests, to take their 
chance for slavery or freedom. My honorable 
friend from Georgia, in March, 1847, nioved the 
Senate to declare that the war ought not to 



DANIEL WEBSTER 93 

be prosecuted for the conquest of territory, or 
for the dismemberment of Mexico. The whole 
of the Northern Democracy voted against It. 
He did not get a vote from them. It suited the 
patriotic and elevated sentiments of the North- 
ern Democracy to bring in a world from 
among the mountains and valleys of California 
and New Mexico, or any other part of Mex- 
ico, and then quarrel about It; to bring It In, and 
then endeavor to put upon It the saving grace 
of the Wilmot Proviso. There were two emi- 
nent and highly respectable gentlemen from 
the North and East, then leading gentlemen 
In the Senate (I refer, and I do so with 
entire respect, for I entertain for both of those 
gentlemen. In general, high regard, to Mr. DIx of 
New York and Mr. Nlles of Connecticut), who 
both voted for the admission of Texas. They 
would not have that vote any other way than as 
it stood; and they would have it as it did 
stand. I speak of the vote upon the annexation 
of Texas. Those two gentlemen would have the 
resolution of annexation just as It Is, without 
amendment; and they voted for it just as It Is, and 
their eyes were all open to Its true character. 
The honorable member from South Carolina who 
addressed us the other day was then Secretary of 
State. His correspondence with Mr. Murphy, 
the Charge d'Affalres of the United States in 



94 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

Texas, had been published. That correspondence 
was all before those gentlemen, and the Secretary 
had the boldness and candor to avow In that corre- 
spondence, that the great object sought by the 
annexation of Texas was to strengthen the slave 
Interest of the South. Why, sir, he said so In so 
many words. 

Mr. Calhoun. Will the honorable Senator 
permit me to Interrupt him for a moment? 

Mr. Webster. Certainly. 

Mr. Calhoun. I am very reluctant to Inter- 
rupt the honorable gentleman; but, upon a point 
of so much Importance, I deem It right to put 
myself rectus in curia. I did not put It upon the 
ground assumed by the Senator. I put It upon 
this ground; that Great Britain had announced to 
this country. In so many words, that her object 
was to abolish slavery In Texas, and, through 
Texas, to accomplish the abolition of slav- 
ery In the United States and the world. The 
ground I put It on was, that it would make 
an exposed frontier, and, if Great Britain 
succeeded In her object. It would be impossible 
that that frontier could be secured against the ag- 
gressions of the Abolitionists; and that this gov- 
ernment was bound, under the guaranties of the 
Constitution, to protect us against such a state of 
things. 

Mr. Webster. That comes, I suppose, sir, 



DANIEL WEBSTER 95. 

to exactly the same thing. It was, that Texas 
must be obtained for the security of the slave In- 
terest of the South. 

Mr. Calhoun. Another view Is very distinctly 
given. 

Mr. Webster. That was the object set forth 
In the correspondence of a worthy gentleman not 
now living, who preceded the honorable member 
from South Carolina In the Department of State. 
There repose on the files of the Department, as 
I have occasion to know, strong letters from 
Mr. Upshur to the United States Minister In Eng- 
land, and I believe there are some to the 
same Minister from the honorable Senator him- 
self, asserting to this effect the sentiments of this 
government; namely, that Great Britain was ex- 
pected not to Interfere to take Texas out of the 
hands of Its then existing government and make 
It a free country. But my argument, my sugges- 
tion, is this: that those gentlemen who composed 
the Northern Democracy when Texas was 
brought Into the Union saw clearly that It was 
brought In as a slave country, and brought In for 
the purpose of being maintained as slave territory, 
to the Greek Kalends. I rather think the honor- 
able gentleman who was then Secretary of State 
might, In some of his correspondence with Mr. 
Murphy, have suggested that It was not expedient 
to say too much abou-t this object, lest It should 



96 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

create some alarm. At any rate, Mr. Murphy 
wrote to him that England was anxious to get rid 
of the constitution of Texas, because it was a con- 
stitution establishing slavery; and that what 
the United States had to do was to aid the people 
of Texas in upholding their constitution; but that 
nothing should be said which should offend the 
fanatical men of the North. But, sir, the honor- 
able member did avow this object himself, 
openly, boldly, and manfully; he did not disguise 
his conduct or his motives. 

Mr. Calhoun. Never, never. 

Mr. Webster. What he means he is very apt 
to say. 

Mr. Calhoun. Always, always. 

Mr. Webster. And I honor him for it. 

This admission of Texas was in 1845. Then 
In 1847, flagrante hello between the United States 
and Mexico, the proposition I have mentioned 
was brought forward by my friend from Georgia, 
and the Northern Democracy voted steadily 
against it. Their remedy was to apply to 
the acquisitions, after they should come In, the 
Wllmot Proviso. What follows? These two 
gentlemen, worthy and honorable and influ- 
ential men (and if they had not been they could 
not have carried the measure), these two gentle- 
men, members of this body, brought in Texas, 
and by their votes they also prevented the passage 



DANIEL WEBSTER 97 

of the resolution of the honorable member from 
Georgia, and then they went home and took the 
lead In the Free Soil party. And there they 
stand, sir! They leave us here, bound In honor 
and conscience by the resolutions of annexation; 
they leave us here, to take the odium of fulfilling 
the obligations In favor of slavery which they 
voted us Into, or else the greater odium of viola- 
ting those obligations, while they are at home 
making capital and rousing speeches for free soil 
and no slavery. And therefore I say, sir, that 
there is not a chapter in our history, respecting 
public measures and public men, more full of what 
would create surprise, and more full of what does 
create, in my mind, extreme mortification, than 
that of the conduct of the Northern Democracy 
on this subject. 

Mr. President, sometimes when a man is found 
In a new relation to things around him and to other 
men, he says the world has changed, and that he 
Is not changed. I believe, sir, that our self-re- 
spect leads us often to make this declaration In 
regard to ourselves when it is not exactly true. 
An individual is more apt to change, perhaps, 
than all the world around him. But under the 
present circumstances, and under the responsibil- 
ity which I know I incur by what I am now 
stating here, I feel at liberty to recur to the vari- 
ous expressions and statements, made at various 



98 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

times, of my own opinions and resolutions respect- 
ing the admission of Texas, and all that has fol- 
lowed. . . . On other occasions, in debate here, 
I have expressed my determination to vote for 
no acquisition, or cession, or annexation, North 
or South, East or West. My opinion has been, 
that we have territory enough, and that we should 
follow the Spartan maxim: " Improve, adorn 
what you have," — seek no further. I think that 
it was in some observations that I made on the 
three million loan bill that I avowed this senti- 
ment. In short, sir, it has been avowed quite 
as often in as many places, and before as many 
assemblies, as any humble opinions of mine ought 
to be avowed. 

But now that, under certain conditions, Texas 
Is In the Union, with all her territory, as a slave 
State, with a solemn pledge also that, If she shall 
be divided Into many States, those States may 
come In as slave States south of 36° 30', how are 
we to deal with this subject? I know no way of 
honest legislation, when the proper time comes 
for the enactment, but to carry Into effect all that 
we have stipulated to do. . . . That Is the mean- 
ing of the contract which our friends, the 
Northern Democracy, have left us to fulfill; and I, 
for one, mean to fulfill it, because I will not vio- 
late the faith of the government. What I mean 
to say Is, that the time for the admission of new 



DANIEL WEBSTER 99 

States formed out of Texas, the number of such 
States, their boundaries, the requisite amount of 
population, and all other things connected with 
the admission, are In the free discretion of Con- 
gress, except this: to wit, that when new States 
formed out of Texas are to be admitted, they 
have a right, by legal stipulation and contract, to 
come In as slave States. 

Now, as to California and New Mexico, I hold 
slavery to be excluded from these territories by a 
law even superior to that which admits and sanc- 
tions It In Texas. I mean the law of nature, of 
physical geography, the law of the formation of 
the earth. That law settles forever, with a 
strength beyond all terms of human enactment, 
that slavery cannot exist In California or New 
Mexico. Understand me, sir; I mean slavery as 
we regard It; the slavery of the colored race as It 
exists In the Southern States. I shall not discuss 
the point, but leave it to the learned gentlemen 
who have undertaken to discuss It; but I suppose 
there Is no slavery of that description In California 
now. I understand that peonism, a sort of penal 
servitude, exists there, or rather a sort of volun- 
tary sale of a man and his offspring for debt, an 
arrangement of a peculiar nature known to the 
law of Mexico. But what I mean to say Is, that 
It Is Impossible that African slavery, as we see It 
among us, should find Its way, or be Introduced, 



loo NOTED SPEECHES OF 

Into California or New Mexico, as any other nat- 
ural Impossibility. California and New Mexico 
are Asiatic In their formation and scenery. They 
are composed of vast ridges of mountains of great 
height, with broken ridges and deep valleys. 
The sides of these mountains are entirely barren; 
their tops capped by perennial snow. There may 
be in California, now made free by Its constitu- 
tion, and no doubt there are, some tracts of valu- 
able land. But It Is not so In New Mexico. 
Pray, what Is the evidence which every gentleman 
must have obtained on this subject, from informa- 
tion sought by himself or communicated by oth- 
ers? I have inquired and read all I could find, 
in order to acquire Information on this Important 
subject. What Is there In New Mexico that 
could, by any possibility. Induce anybody to go 
there with slaves! There are some narrow strips 
of tillable land on the borders of the rivers; but 
the rivers themselves dry up before midsummer Is 
gone. All that the people can do In that region 
Is to raise some little articles, some little wheat 
for their tortillas, and that by Irrigation. And 
who expects to see a hundred black men cultiva- 
ting tobacco, corn, cotton, rice, or anything else, 
on lands In New Mexico, made fertile by irriga- 
tion ? 

I look upon It, therefore, as a fixed fact, to use 
the current expression of the day, that both Call- 



DANIEL WEBSTER loi 

fornia and New Mexico are destined to be free, 
so far as they are settled at all, which I believe, 
In regard to New Mexico, will be but partially, 
for a great length of time; free by the arrange- 
ment of things ordained by the Power above us. 
I have therefore to say, in this respect also, that 
this country Is fixed for freedom, to as many per- 
sons as shall ever live In It, by a less repealable 
law than that which attaches to the right of hold- 
ing slaves in Texas; and I will say further, that, 
If a resolution or a bill were now before us, to 
provide a territorial government for New Mex- 
ico, I would not vote to put any prohibition Into 
It whatever. Such a prohibition would be idle, 
as It respects any effect it would have upon the 
territory; and I would not take pains uselessly to 
reaffirm an ordinance of nature, nor to reenact 
the will of God. I would put In no WHmot Pro- 
viso for the mere purpose of a taunt or a reproach. 
I would put into It no evidence of the votes of 
superior power, exercised for no purpose but to 
wound the pride, whether a just and a rational 
pride, or an Irrational pride, of the citizens 
of the Southern States. I have no such ob- 
ject, no such purpose. They would think It a 
taunt, an Indignity; they would think it to be an 
act taking away from them what they regard as a 
proper equality of privilege. Whether they ex- 
pect to realize any benefit from it or not, they 



I02 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

would think It at least a plain theoretic wrong; 
that something more or less derogatory to their 
character and their rights had taken place. I pro- 
pose to Inflict no such wound upon anybody, unless 
something essentially Important to the country, 
and efficient to the preservation of liberty and 
freedom, Is to be effected. I repeat, therefore, 
sir, and, as I do not propose to address the Senate 
often on this subject, I repeat It because I wish It 
to be distinctly understood, that, for the reasons 
stated. If a proposition were now here to establish 
a government for New Mexico, and It was moved 
to Insert a provision for a prohibition of slavery, 
I would not vote for It. . . . Sir, we hear occa- 
sionally of the annexation of Canada; and if there 
be any man, any of the Northern Democracy, or 
any of the Free Soil party, who supposes It neces- 
sary to Insert a Wilmot Proviso in a territorial 
government for New Mexico, that man would, of 
course, be of opinion that it is necessary to protect 
the everlasting snows of Canada from the foot of 
slavery by the same overspreading wing of an act 
of Congress. Sir, wherever there Is a substantive 
good to be done, wherever there Is a foot of land 
to be prevented from becoming slave territory, 
I am ready to assert the principle of the exclusion 
of slavery. I am pledged to it from the year 
1837; I have been pledged to It again and again; 
and I will perform these pledges; but I will not do 



DANIEL WEBSTER 103 

a thing unnecessarily that wounds the feelings of 
others, or that does discredit to my own under- 
standing. ... 

Mr. President, In the excited times in which 
we live, there Is found to exist a state of crimina- 
tion and recrimination between the North and 
South. There are lists of grievances produced 
by each; and those grievances, real or supposed, 
alienate the minds of one portion of the country 
from the other, exasperate the feelings, and sub- 
due the sense of fraternal affection, patriotic 
love, and mutual regard. I shall bestow a little 
attention, sir, upon these various grievances exist- 
ing on the one side and on the other. I begin 
with complaints of the South. I will not answer, 
further than I have, the general statements of the 
honorable Senator from South Carolina, that the 
North has prospered at the expense of the South 
in consequence of the manner of administering 
this government. In the collection of its revenues, 
and so forth. These are disputed topics, and I 
have no inclination to enter into them. But I 
will allude to other complaints of the South, and 
especially to one which has in my opinion, just 
foundation; and that is, that there has been found 
at the North, among individuals and among legis- 
lators, a disinclination to perform fully their con- 
stitutional duties in regard to the return of 
persons bound to service who have escaped Into 



104 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

the free States. In that respect, the South, In my 
judgment. Is right, and the North Is wrong. Ev- 
ery member of every Northern legislature Is 
bound by oath, like every other officer In the coun- 
try, to support the Constitution of the United 
States; and the article of the Constitution which 
says to these States that they shall deliver up fugi- 
tives from service. Is as binding In honor and con- 
science as any other article. No man fulfills his 
duty In any legislature who sets himself to find 
excuses, evasions, escapes from this constitutional 
obligation. I have always thought that the Con- 
stitution addressed Itself to the legislatures of the 
States or to the States themselves. It says that 
those persons escaping to other States " shall 
be delivered up," and I confess I have al- 
ways been of the opinion that It was an Injunction 
upon the States themselves. When It Is said that 
a person escaping Into another State, and coming 
within the jurisdiction of that State, shall be deliv- 
ered up, it seems to me the Import of the clause Is, 
that the State Itself, In obedience to the Constitu- 
tion, shall cause him to be delivered up. That 
Is my judgment. I have always entertained that 
opinion, and I entertain It now. But when the 
subject, some years ago, was before the Supreme 
Court of the United States, the majority of the 
judges held that the power to cause fugitives from 
service to be delivered up was a power to be ex- 



DANIEL WEBSTER 105 

ercised under the authority of this government. 
I do not know, on the whole, that It may not have 
been a fortunate decision. My habit is to respect 
the result of judicial deliberations and the 
solemnity of judicial decisions. As It now stands, 
the business of seeing that these fugitives are de- 
livered up resides In the power of Congress and 
the national judicature, and my friend at the head 
of the Judiciary Committee has a bill on the sub- 
ject now before the Senate, which, with some 
amendments to it, I propose to support, with all 
Its provisions, to the fullest extent. And I desire 
to call the attention of all sober-minded men at 
the North, of all conscientious men, of all men 
who are not carried away by some fanatical idea 
or some false Impression, to their constitutional 
obligations. I put it to all the sober and sound 
minds at the North as a question of morals and a 
question of conscience. What right have they, In 
their legislative capacity, or any other capacity, to 
endeavor to get round this Constitution, or to em- 
barrass the free exercise of the rights secured by 
the Constitution, to the person whose slaves escape 
from them? None at all; none at all. Neither 
in the forum of conscience, nor before the face of 
the Constitution, are they, in my opinion, justified 
In such an attempt. Of course It Is a matter for 
their consideration. They probably, in the ex- 
citement of the times, have not stopped to con- 



io6 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

sider this. They have followed what seemed to 
be the current of thought and of motives, as the 
occasion arose, and they have neglected to Investi- 
gate fully the real question, and to consider their 
constitutional obligations; which, I am sure. If 
they did consider, they would fulfill with alacrity. 
I repeat, therefore, sir, that here Is a well- 
founded ground of complaint against the North, 
which ought to be rernoved, which Is now In the 
power of the different departments of this gov- 
ernment to remove; which calls for the enact- 
ment of proper laws authorizing the judicature 
of this government, In the several States, to do 
all that Is necessary for the recapture of fugitive 
slaves and for their restoration to those who 
claim them. Wherever I go, and whenever I 
speak on the subject, and when I speak here I 
desire to speak to the whole North, I say that 
the South has been Injured In this respect, and 
has a right to complain; and the North has been 
too careless of what I think the Constitution per- 
emptorily and emphatically enjoins upon her as 
a duty. 

Complaint has been made against certain reso- 
lutions that emanate from legislatures at the 
North, and are sent here to us, not only on the 
subject of slavery In this District, but sometimes 
recommending Congress to consider the means of 
abolishing slavery In the States. I should be 



DANIEL WEBSTER 107 

sorry to be called upon to present any resolu- 
tions here which could not be referable to any 
committee or any power In Congress; and there- 
fore I should be unwilling to receive from the 
legislature of Massachusetts any Instructions to 
present resolutions expressive of any opinion 
whatever on the subject of slavery, as it exists at 
the present moment in the States, for two reasons : 
because I do not consider that I, as her representa- 
tive here, have anything to do with it. It has 
become, in my opinion, quite too common; and 
if the legislatures of the States do not like that 
opinion, they have a great deal more power to put 
it down than I have to uphold it; it has become, 
in my opinion, quite too common a practice for 
the State legislatures to present resolutions here 
on all subjects and to instruct us on all subjects. 
There is no public man that requires instruction 
more than I do, or who requires information 
more than I do, or desires it more heartily; but 
I do not like to have It In too imperative a 
shape. . . . 

Then, sir, there are the Abolition societies, of 
which I am unwilling to speak, but In regard to 
which I have very clear notions and opinions. I 
do not think them useful. I think their opera- 
tions for the last twenty years have produced 
nothing good or valuable. At the same time, I 
believe thousands of their members to be honest 



io8 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

and good men, perfectly well-meaning men. 
They have excited feelings; they think they must 
do something for the cause of liberty; and, In their 
sphere of action, they do not see what else they 
can do than to contribute to an Abolition press, or 
an Abolition society, or to pay an Abolition lec- 
turer. I do not mean to Impute gross motives 
even to the leaders of these societies, but I am not 
blind to the consequences of their proceedings. 
I cannot but see what mischief their interference 
with the South has produced. And Is It not plain 
to every man? Let any gentleman who enter- 
tains doubts on this point, recur to the debates In 
the Virginia House of Delegates In 1832, and he 
will see with what freedom a proposition made by 
Mr. Jefferson Randolph, for the gradual abo- 
lition of slavery was discussed In that body. 
Every one spoke of slavery as he thought; very 
Ignominious and disparaging names and epithets 
were applied to It. The debates In the House 
of Delegates on that occasion, I believe were all 
published. They were read by every colored 
man who could read, and to those who could not 
read, those debates were read by others. At 
that time Virginia was not unwilling or afraid to 
discuss this question, and to let that part of her 
population know as much of the discussion as they 
could learn. That was in 1832. As has been 
said by the honorable member from South Caro- 



DANIEL WEBSTER 109 

Una, these Abolition societies commenced their 
course of action in 1835. ^^ ^s said, I do not 
know how true it may be, that they sent incen- 
diary publications into the slave States; at any rate, 
they attempted to arouse, and did arouse, a very 
strong feeling; in other words, they created great 
agitation in the North against Southern slavery. 
Well, what was the result? The bonds of the 
slaves were bound more firmly than before, their 
rivets were more strongly fastened. Public 
opinion, which in Virginia had begun to be ex- 
hibited against slavery, and was opening out for 
the discussion of the question, drew back and shut 
itself up in its castle. I wish to know whether 
anybody In Virginia can now talk openly, as Mr. 
Randolph, Governor McDowel, and others talked 
in 1832, and sent their remarks to the press? 
We all know the fact, and we all know the 
cause; and everything that these agitating people 
have done has been, not to enlarge, but to re- 
strain, not to set free, but to bind faster, the slave 
population of the South. . . . 

There are also complaints of the North against 
the South. I need not go over them particu- 
larly. The first and gravest is, that the North 
adopted the Constitution, recognizing the exist- 
ence of slavery in the States, and recognizing the 
right, to a certain extent, of the representation of 
slaves in Congress, under a state of sentiment and 



no NOTED SPEECHES OF 

expectation which does not now exist; and that by 
events, by circumstances, by the eagerness of the 
South to acquire territory and extend her slave 
population, the North finds itself, in regard to the 
relative influence of the South and the North, of 
the free States and the slave States, where it never 
did expect to find itself when they agreed to the 
compact of the Constitution. They complain, 
therefore, that, instead of slavery being regarded 
as an evil, as it was then, an evil which all hoped 
would be extinguished gradually, it is now re- 
garded by the South as an institution to be cher- 
ished, and preserved, and extended; an institu- 
tion which the South has already extended to the 
utmost of her power by the acquisition of new 
territory. 

Well, then, passing from that, everybody in 
the North reads; and everybody reads whatso- 
ever the newspapers contain; and the newspapers, 
some of them, especially those presses to which 
I have alluded, are careful to spread about 
among the people every reproachful sentiment 
uttered by any Southern man bearing at all 
against the North; everything that is calculated 
to exasperate and to alienate; and there are many 
such things, as everybody will admit, from the 
South, or from portions of it, which are dissemi- 
nated among the reading people; and they do ex- 
asperate, and alienate, and produce a most 



DANIEL WEBSTER iii 

mischievous effect upon the public mind at the 
North. Sir, I would not notice things of this 
sort appearing in obscure quarters; but one thing 
has occurred In this debate which struck me very 
forcibly. An honorable member from Louisiana 
addressed us the other day on this subject. I 
suppose there Is not a more amiable and worthy 
gentleman In this chamber, nor a gentleman who 
would be more slow to give offense to anybody, 
and he did not mean In his remarks to give 
offense. But what did he say? Why, sir, he 
took pains to run a contrast between the slaves 
of the South and the laboring people of the 
North, giving the preference, In all points of con- 
dition, and comfort, and happiness to the slaves 
of the South. The honorable member, doubt- 
less, did not suppose that he gave any offense, or 
did any Injustice. He was merely expressing his 
opinion. But does he know how remarks of that 
sort will be received by the laboring people of 
the North? Why, who are the laboring people 
of the North? They are the whole North. 
They are the people who till their own farms 
with their own hands; freeholders, educated men, 
independent men. Let me say, sir, that five- 
sixths of the whole property of the North Is in 
the hands of the laborers of the North; they 
cultivate their farms, they educate their children, 
they provide the means of Independence. If 



112 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

they are not freeholders, they earn wages; these 
wages accumulate, are turned Into capital, Into 
new freeholds, and small capitalists are created. 
Such Is the case, and such the course of things, 
among the Industrious and frugal. And what 
can these people think when so respectable and 
worthy a gentleman as the member from Louisi- 
ana undertakes to prove that the absolute Igno- 
rance and the abject slavery of the South are more 
in conformity with the high purposes and destiny 
of Immortal, rational, human beings, than the 
educated, the Independent free labor of the 
North ? 

There Is a more tangibly, and Irritating cause 
of grievance at the North. L Free blacks are con- 
stantly employed in the vessels of the North, gen- 
erally as cooks or stewards. When the vessel 
arrives at a southern port, these free colored men 
are taken on shore, by the police or municipal 
authority, imprisoned, and kept in prison till the 
vessel is again ready to sail. This Is not only 
Irritating, but exceedingly unjustifiable and op- 
pressive. Mr. Hoar's mission, some time ago to 
South Carolina, was a well-intended effort to re- 
move this cause of complaint. The North thinks 
such Imprisonments Illegal and unconstitutional; 
and as the cases occur constantly and frequently 
they regard It as a grievance. 

Now, sir, so far as any of these grievances have 



DANIEL WEBSTER 113 

their foundation In matters of law, they can be 
redressed, and ought to be redressed; and so far 
as they have their foundation in matters of 
opinion, in sentiment, In mutual crimination and 
recrimination, all that we can do is to endeavor to 
allay the agitation, and cultivate a better feeling 
and more fraternal sentiments between the South 
and the North. 

Mr. President, I should much prefer to have 
heard from every member on this floor declara- 
tions of opinion that this Union could never be 
dissolved, than the declaration of opinion by 
anybody, that In any case, under the pressure of 
any circumstances, such a dissolution was possible. 
I hear with distress and anguish the word '* seces- 
sion," especially when it falls from the lips of 
those who are patriotic, and known to the country, 
and known all over the world for their political 
services. Secession! Peaceable secession! Sir, 
your eyes and mine are never destined to see that 
miracle. The dismemberment of this vast coun- 
try without convulsion! The breaking up of the 
fountains of the great deep without ruflling the 
surface ! Who is so foolish — I beg every- 
body's pardon — as to expect to see any such 
thing? Sir, he who sees these States, now re- 
volving in harmony around a common center, and 
expects to see them quit their places and fly off 
without convulsion, may look the next hour to see 



114 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

the heavenly bodies rush from their spheres, and 
jostle against each other in the realms of space, 
without causing the wreck of the universe. There 
can be no such thing as a peaceable secession. 
Peaceable secession is an utter impossibility. Is 
the great Constitution under which we live, cover- 
ing this whole country, is it to be thawed and 
melted away by secession, as the snows on the 
mountain melt under the influence of a vernal sun, 
disappear almost unobserved, and run off? No, 
sir! No, sir! I will not state what might pro- 
duce the disruption of the Union; but, sir, I see 
as plainly as I can see the sun in Heaven what that 
disruption itself must produce; I see that it must 
produce war, and such a war as I will not de- 
scribe, in its twofold character. 

Peaceable secession! Peaceable secession! 
The concurrent agreement of all the members of 
this great Republic to separate! A voluntary 
separation, with alimony on one side and on the 
other. Why, what would be the result? Where 
is the line to be drawn? What States are to 
secede? What is to remain American? What 
am I to be? An American no longer? Am I to 
become a sectional man, a local man, a separatist, 
with no country in common with the gentlemen 
who sit around me here, or who fill the other 
house of Congress? Heaven forbid! Where 
is the flag of the RepubHc to remain? Where is 



DANIEL WEBSTER 115 

the eagle still to tower? or Is he to cower, and 
shrink, and fall to the ground? Why, sir, our 
ancestors, our fathers and our grandfathers, those 
of them that are yet living amongst us with pro- 
longed lives, would rebuke and reproach us; and 
our children and our grandchildren would cry out 
shame upon us, if we of this generation should 
dishonor these ensigns of the power of the gov- 
ernment and the harmony of that Union which is 
every day felt among us with so much joy and 
gratitude. What Is to become of the army? 
What Is to become of the navy? What is to be- 
come of the public lands? How is each of the 
thirty States to defend itself? I know, although 
the idea has not been stated distinctly, there is to 
be, or It Is supposed possible that there will be, a 
Southern Confederacy. I do not mean, when I 
allude to this statement, that any one seriously 
contemplates such a state of things. I do not 
mean to say that It Is true, but I have heard it 
suggested elsewhere, that the Idea has been enter- 
tained, that, after the dissolution of this Union, a 
Southern Confederacy might be formed. I am 
sorry, sir, that It has ever been thought of, talked 
of. In the wildest flights of human imagination. 
But the Idea, so far as it exists, must be of a sepa- 
ration, assigning the slave States to one side, and 
the free States to the other. Sir, I may express 
myself too strongly, perhaps, but there are Im- 



ii6 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

possibilities In the natural as well as In the phys- 
ical world, and I hold the Idea of the separation 
of these States, those that are free to form one 
government, and those that are slave-holding to 
form another, as such an Impossibility. We 
could not separate the States by any such line, if 
we were to draw It. We could not sit down here 
to-day and draw a line of separation that would 
satisfy any five men In the country. There are 
natural causes that would keep and tie us together, 
and there are social and domestic relations which 
we could not break If we would, and which we 
should not if we could. 

Sir, nobody can look over the face of this 
country at the present moment, nobody can see 
where Its population Is the most dense and grow- 
ing, without being ready to admit, and compelled 
to admit, that erelong the strength of America 
will be In the Valley of the Mississippi. Well, 
now, sir, I beg to Inquire what the wildest enthusi- 
ast has to say on the possibility of cutting that 
river In two, and leaving free States at its source 
and on Its branches, and slave States down near its 
mouth, each forming a separate government? 
Pray, sir, let me say to the people of this country, 
that these things are worthy of their pondering 
and of their consideration. Here, sir, are five 
millions of freemen in the free States north of 
the river Ohio. Can anybody suppose that this 



DANIEL WEBSTER 117 

population can be severed, by a line that divides 
them from the territory of a foreign and alien 
government, down somewhere, the Lord knows 
where, upon the lower banks of the Mississippi? 
What would become of Missouri? Will she join 
the arrondissement of the slave States? Shall 
the man from the Yellowstone and the Platte be 
connected, in the new republic, with the man who 
lives on the southern extremity of the Cape of 
Florida? Sir, I am ashamed to pursue this line 
of remark. I dislike it, I have an utter disgust 
for it. I would rather hear of natural blasts and 
mildews, war, pestilence, and famine, than to hear 
gentlemen talk of secession. To break up this 
great government! to dismember this glorious 
country! to astonish Europe with an act of folly 
such as Europe for two centuries has never be- 
held in any government or any people! No, sir! 
no, sir! There will be no secession! Gentle- 
men are not serious when they talk of secession. 
Sir, I hear there Is to be a convention held at 
Nashville. I am bound to believe that if worthy 
gentlemen meet at Nashville in convention, their 
object will be to adopt conciliatory counsels; to 
advise the South to forbearance and moderation, 
and to advise the North to forbearance and 
moderation; and to Inculcate principles of 
brotherly love and affection, and attachment to 
the Constitution of the country as it now is. I 



ii8 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

believe, If the convention meet at all, It will be 
for this purpose; for certainly, If they meet for 
any purpose hostile to the Union, they have been 
singularly Inappropriate In their selection of a 
place. I remember, sir, that, when the treaty of 
Amiens was concluded between France and Eng- 
land, a sturdy Englishman and a distinguished 
orator, who regarded the conditions of the peace 
as ignominious to England, said In the House of 
Commons, that If King William could know the 
terms of that treaty, he would turn In his coffin ! 
Let me commend this saying to Mr. Windham, in 
all its emphasis and In all Its force, to any persons 
who shall meet at Nashville for the purpose of 
concerting measures for the overthrow of this 
Union over the bones of Andrew Jackson. . . . 
And now, Mr. President, Instead of speaking 
of the possibility or utility of secession, instead of 
dwelling In those caverns of darkness. Instead of 
groping with those ideas so full of all that is hor- 
rid and horrible, let us come out into the light 
of the day; let us enjoy the fresh air of Liberty 
and Union; let us cherish those hopes which be- 
long to us; let us devote ourselves to those great 
objects that are fit for our consideration and our 
action; let us raise our conceptions to the magni- 
tude and the Importance of the duties that de- 
volve upon us; let our comprehension be as broad 
as the country for which we act, our aspirations 



DANIEL WEBSTER 119 

as high as Its certain destiny; let us not be pig- 
mies In a case that calls for men. Never did 
there devolve on any generation of men higher 
trusts than now devolve upon us, for the preserva- 
tion of this Constitution and the harmony and 
peace of all who are destined to live under It. 
Let us make our generation one of the strongest 
and brightest links In that golden chain which Is 
destined, I fondly believe, to grapple the people 
of all the States to this Constitution for ages to 
come. We have a great, popular. Constitutional 
Government, guarded by law and by judicature, 
and defended by the affections of the whole peo- 
ple. No monarchical throne presses these States 
together, no Iron chain of military power encir- 
cles them; they live and stand under a govern- 
ment popular In Its form, representative in its 
character, founded upon principles of equality, 
and so constructed, we hope, as to last forever. 
In all Its history It has been beneficent; It has 
trodden down no man's liberty; It has crushed no 
State. Its daily respiration Is liberty and patriot- 
Ism; Its yet youthful veins are full of enterprise, 
courage, and honorable love of glory and renown. 
Large before, the country has now, by recent 
events, become vastly larger. This Republic 
now extends, with a vast breadth across the whole 
continent. The two great seas of the world wash 
the one and the other shore. We reahze, on a 



I20 DANIEL WEBSTER 

mighty scale, the beautiful description of the orna- 
mental border of the buckler of Achilles: 

" Now, the broad shield complete, the artist crowned 
With his last hand, and poured the ocean round; 
In living silver seemed the waves to roll, 
And beat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole." 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 




JOHN C. CALHOUN 

Froi}i an old Print 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

John Caldwell Calhoun was born March 
1 8, 1782, In the Abbeville District, South Caro- 
lina. 

As a young boy he had very little regular 
schooling. When he was thirteen years old, his 
father, Patrick Calhoun, died, leaving his family 
in very modest circumstances. John remained on 
the farm with his mother for five years, leading 
the quiet simple life of a farmer boy. Then 
at the age of eighteen, under the direction of his 
brother-in-law. Dr. Waddell, he began to prepare 
himself for college at the North Carolina Acad- 
emy. In two years he was able to enter the 
junior class at Y^le College, and graduated with 
high honors In 1804. 

The ensuing year and a half proved him to be 
a diligent student of law at the Litchfield Law 
School. Then returning to South Carolina, he 
studied for a short time In a law office at Charles- 
ton. From there he went to his native town, and 
very soon after opening an office, he was sent by 

123 



124 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

his district to the State legislature ; while there he 
so distinguished himself that In 1811 he was 
elected a member of Congress, and placed on the 
Committee on Foreign Relations. 

Mr. Calhoun's first formal speech was de- 
livered In Congress, December 12, 181 1, an argu- 
ment in defense of the resolutions before the 
House, for the preparation of war. His noted 
speech on " Repeal of Direct Tax " was made on 
January 31, 1816, and "The New Tariff Bill" 
speech, a longer and more carefully prepared 
argument, was delivered on April 6, of the same 
year. 

Upon leaving the House of Representatives 
Mr. Calhoun' accepted a place on President Mon- 
roe's cabinet as Secretary of War, which place 
he filled with credit to himself and to the coun- 
try. From 1825 to 1829 he served as Vice- 
President with John Quincy Adams, and was re- 
elected with President Jackson. In 1833 Mr. 
Calhoun resigned the Vice-Presidency to become 
United States Senator from South Carolina, hold- 
ing the office for ten years. 

His well-known speech on the Force Bill was 
given In February, of his first year In the Senate; 
another one of extraordinary force. In support of 
State Rights, was delivered that same month. 
And In February, 1837, he made that able speech 
on the Abolition Petitions. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 125 

In 1844 he was made Secretary of State by 
President Tyler. He was again, In 1845, sent 
to the United States Senate, where he spent his 
remaining years. Owing to Mr. Calhoun's III 
health, his last speech " On the Slavery Question,'' 
was read by Senator Mason, March 4, 1850. 
He died in Washington, the last day of that 
month, March 31, 1850. 



ON THE RECEPTION OF ABOLI- 
TION PETITIONS 

Delivered in the United States Senate, February 

6, 1837. 

Mr. President: — If the time of the Senate 
permitted, I would feel it to be my duty to call 
for the reading of the mass of petitions on the 
table, in order that we might know what language 
they hold towards the slave-holding States and 
their institutions. But as it will not, I have 
selected, indiscriminately from the pile, two; one 
from those in manuscript, and the other from the 
printed, and without knowing their contents will 
call for the reading of them, so that we may judge 
by them of the character of the whole. 

[Here the secretary, on the call of Mr. Cal- 
houn, read the two petitions.] 

Such is the language held towards us and ours. 
The peculiar institution of the South — that on 
the maintenance of which the very existence of the 
slave-holding States depends — is pronounced to 
be sinful and odious in the sight of God and man; 
and this with a systematic design of rendering us 

126 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 127 

hateful In the eyes of the world — with a view to 
a general crusade against us and our Institutions. 
This, too, in the legislative halls of the Union, 
created by these confederate States for the better 
protection of their peace, their safety, and their 
respective Institutions. And yet we, the repre- 
sentatives of twelve of these sovereign States, 
against whom this deadly war is waged, are ex- 
pected to sit here In silence, hearing ourselves and 
our constituents day after day denounced, with- 
out uttering a word; for If we but open our lips 
the charge of agitation Is resounded on all sides, 
and we are held up as seeking to aggravate the 
evil which we resist. Every reflecting mind must 
see In all this a state of thlnfrs deeply and danger- 
ously diseased. 

I do not belong to the school which holds that 
aggression is to be met by concession. Mine is 
the opposite creed, which teaches that encroach- 
ments must be met at the beginning, and that those 
who act on the opposite principle are prepared to 
become slaves. In this case, in particular, I hold 
concession or compromise to be fatal. If we 
concede an inch, concession would follow conces- 
sion, compromise would follow compromise, until 
our ranks would be so broken that effectual resist- 
ance would be impossible. We must meet the 
enemy on the frontier, with a fixed determination 
of maintaining our position at every hazard. 



128 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

Consent to receive these insulting petitions, and 
the next demand will be that they be referred to a 
committee in order that they may be deliberated 
and acted upon. At the last session we were 
modestly asked to receive them, simply to lay 
them on the table, without any view to ulterior 
action. I then told the Senator from Pennsyl- 
vania [Mr. Buchanan], who so strongly urged 
that course in the Senate, that it was a position 
that could not be maintained; as the argument in 
favor of acting on the petitions, if we were bound 
to receive, could not be resisted. I then said that 
the next step would be to refer the petition to a 
committee, and I already see indications that such 
is now the intention. If we yield, that will be 
followed by another, and we will thus proceed 
step by step to the final consummation of the ob- 
ject of these petitions. We are now told that the 
most effectual mode of arresting the progress of 
abolition is to reason it down; and with this view 
it Is urged that the petitions ought to be referred 
to a committee. That is the very ground which 
was taken at the last session in the other house, 
but instead of arresting its progress it has since 
advanced more rapidly than ever. The most un- 
questionable right may be rendered doubtful if 
once admitted to be a subject of controversy, and 
that would be the case in the present instance. 
The subject is beyond the jurisdiction of Con- 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 129 

gress : they have no right to touch it in any shape 
or form, or to make it the subject of dehberation 
or discussion. 

In opposition to this view, it is urged that Con- 
gress is bound by the Constitution to receive peti- 
tions in every case and on every subject, whether 
within its constitutional competency or not. I 
hold the doctrine to be absurd, and do solemnly 
believe that it would be as easy to prove that it 
has the right to abolish slavery as that it is bound 
to receive petitions for that purpose. The very 
existence of the rule that requires a question to be 
put on the reception of petitions, is conclusive to 
show that there is no such obligation. It has 
been a standing rule from the commencement of 
the government, and clearly shows the sense of 
those who formed the Constitution on this point. 
The question on the reception would be absurd 
if, as is contended, we are bound to receive. But 
I do not intend to argue the question; I discussed 
it fully at the last session, and the arguments then 
advanced neither have been nor can be answered. 
As widely as this incendiary spirit has spread, 
it has not yet infected this body, or the great mass 
of the intelligent and business portion of the 
North; but unless it be speedily stopped, it will 
spread and work upwards till it brings the two 
great sections of the Union into deadly conflict. 
This is not a new impression with me. Several 



130 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

years since, in a discussion with one of the Senators 
from Massachusetts [Mr. Webster], before this 
fell spirit had showed itself, I then predicted that 
the doctrine of the proclamation and the Force 
Bill [President Jackson's measures for overcom- 
ing Nullification, in 1832-33], that this govern- 
ment had a right, in the last resort, to determine 
the extent of its own powers, and enforce its de- 
cision at the point of the bayonet — which was so 
warmly maintained by that Senator — would at 
no distant day arouse the dormant spirit of Aboli- 
tionism. I told him that the doctrine was tanta- 
mount to the assumption of unlimited power on 
the part of the government, and that sucii would 
be the impression on the public mind in a large 
portion of the Union. The consequence would 
be inevitable. A large portion of the Northern 
States believed slavery to be a sin, and would con- 
sider it as an obligation of conscience to abolish it 
if they should feel themselves in any degree re- 
sponsible for its continuance; and that this doc- 
trine would necessarily lead to the belief of such 
responsibility. I then predicted that it would 
commence as it has with this fanatical portion of 
society; and that they would begin their opera- 
tions on the ignorant, the weak, the young, and 
the thoughtless, and gradually extend upwards 
till they would become strong enough to obtain 
political control; when he and others holding the 



JOHN CALDWELL CJLHOUN 131 

highest stations in society would, however reluc- 
tant, be compelled to yield to their doctrines, or be 
driven into obscurity. But four years have since 
elapsed, and all this Is already In a course of regu- 
lar fulfillment. 

Standing at the point of time at which we have 
now arrived, It will not be more difficult to trace 
the course of future events now than it was then. 
They who Imagine that the spirit now abroad in 
the North will die away of itself, without a shock 
or convulsion, have formed a very Inadequate 
conception of its real character; It will continue to 
rise and spread, unless prompt and efficient meas- 
ures to stay its progress be adopted. Already It 
has taken possession of the pulpit, of the schools, 
and to a considerable extent of the press, — those 
great instruments by which the mind of the rising 
generation will be formed. 

However sound the great body of non-slave- 
holding States are at present. In the course of a 
few years they will be succeeded by those who will 
have been taught to hate the people and institu- 
tions of nearly one-half of this Union, with a 
hatred more deadly than one hostile nation ever 
entertained towards another. It Is easy to see the 
end. By the necessary course of events. If left 
to themselves, we must become, finally, two peo- 
ples. It is Impossible under the deadly hatred 
which must spring up between the two great sec- 



132 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

tions, if the present causes are permitted to oper- 
ate unchecked, that we should continue under the 
same political system. The conflicting elements 
would burst the Union asunder, powerful as are 
the links which hold it together. Abolition and 
the Union cannot co-exist. As the friend of the 
Union I openly proclaim it, and the sooner it is 
known the better. The former may now be con- 
trolled, but in a short time it will be beyond the 
power of man to arrest the course of events. We 
of the South will not, cannot surrender our insti- 
tutions. To maintain the existing relations be- 
tween the two races inhabiting that section of the 
Union, is indispensable to the peace and happi- 
ness of both. It dannot be subverted without 
drenching the country in blood, and extirpating 
one or the other of the races. Be it good or bad, 
it has grown up with our society and institutions, 
and is so interwoven with them, that to destroy it 
would be to destroy us as a people. 

Lut let me not be understood as admitting, even 
by implication, that the existing relations between 
the two races in the slave-holding States is an 
evil — far otherwise; I hold it to be a good, as it 
has thus far proved itself to be to both, and will 
continue to prove so if not disturbed by the fell 
spirit of Abolition. I appeal to facts. Never 
before has the black race of Central Africa, from 
the dawn of history to the present day, attained 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 133 

a condition so civilized and so improved, not only 
physically, but morally and intellectually. It 
came among us in a low, degraded, and savage 
condition; and in the course of a few generations 
it has grown up under the fostering care of our 
institutions, reviled as they have been, to its pres- 
ent comparatively civilized condition. This, with 
the rapid increase of numbers, is conclusive proof 
of the general happiness of the race. In spite of 
all the exaggerated tales to the contrary. 

In the meantime, the white or European race 
has not degenerated. It has kept pace with Its 
brethren In other sections of the Union where 
slavery does not exist. It Is odious to make com- 
parison; but I appeal to all sides whether the 
South Is not equal In virtue, Intelligence, patriot- 
ism, courage, disinterestedness, and all the high 
qualities which adorn our nature. I ask whether 
we have not contributed our full share of talents 
and political wisdom in forming and sustaining 
this political fabric; and whether we have not con- 
stantly Inclined most strongly to the side of lib- 
erty, and been the first to see and first to resist the 
encroachments of power. In one thing only are 
we Inferior — the arts of gain; we acknowledge 
that we are less wealthy than the Northern section 
of this Union, but I trace this mainly to the fiscal 
action of this government, which has extracted 
much from, and spent little among us. Had It 



134 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

been the reverse, — If the exaction had been from 
the other section, and the expenditure with us, — 
this point of superiority would not be against us 
now, as it was not at the formation of this govern- 
ment. 

But I take higher ground. I hold that in the 
present state of civilization, where two races of 
different origin, and distinguished by color, and 
other physical differences, as well as intellectual, 
are brought together, the relation now existing in 
the slave-holding States between the two, is, in- 
stead of an evil, a good — a positive good. I 
feel myself called upon to speak freely upon the 
subject where the honor and interests of those I 
represent are Involved. I hold, then, that there 
never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized 
society In which one portion of the community did 
not, in point of fact, live on the labor of the other. 
Broad and general as is this assertion, it is fully 
borne out by history. This is not the proper occa- 
sion, but If it were it would not be difficult to trace 
the various devices by which the wealth of all civi- 
lized communities has been so unequally divided, 
and to show by what means so small a share has 
been allotted to those by whose labor it was pro- 
duced, and so large a share given to the non-pro- 
ducing class. The devices are almost innumer- 
able, from the brute force and gross superstition 
of ancient times, to the subtle and artful fiscal 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 135 

contrivances of modern. I might well challenge 
a comparison between them and the more direct, 
simple, and patriarchal mode by which the labor 
of the African race is, among us, commanded by 
the European. I may say with truth, that In few 
countries so much Is left to the share of the 
laborer, and so little exacted from him, or where 
there is more kind attention paid to him In sick- 
ness or Infirmities of age. Compare his condition 
with the tenants of the poorhouses In the more 
civilized portions of Europe — look at the sick 
and the old and Infirm slave, on one hand. In the 
midst of his family and friends, under the kind 
superintending care of his master and mistress; 
and compare It with the forlorn and wretched con- 
dition of the pauper In the poorhouse. 

But I will not dwell on this aspect of the ques- 
tion; I turn to the political; and here I fearlessly 
assert that the existing relation between the two 
races In the South, against which these blind fanat- 
ics are waging war, forms the most solid and dura- 
ble foundation on which to rear free and stable 
political Institutions. It Is useless to disguise the 
fact. There Is, and always has been In an ad- 
vanced stage of wealth and civiUzatlon, a conflict 
between labor and capital. The condition of 
society In the South exempts us from the disorders 
and dangers resulting from this conflict; and 
which explains why It is that the political condl- 



136 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

tion of the slave-holding States has been so much 
more stable and quiet than that of the North. 
The advantages of the former in this respect will 
become more and more manifest, if left undis- 
turbed by Interference from without, as the coun- 
try advances in wealth and numbers. We have, 
in fact, but just entered that condition of society 
where the strength and durability of our political 
institutions are to be tested; and I venture noth- 
ing In predicting that the experience of the next 
generation will fully test how vastly more favor- 
able our condition of society Is to that of other 
sections for free and stable institutions, provided 
we are not disturbed by the Interference of others, 
or shall have sufficient Intelligence and spirit to 
resist promptly and successfully such Interference. 
It rests with ourselves to meet and repel them. I 
look not for aid to this government, or to the 
other States: not but there are kind feelings to- 
wards us on the part of the great body of the non- 
slave-holding States; but as kind as their feelings 
may be, we may rest assured that no political 
party In those States will risk their ascendency for 
our safety. If we do not defend ourselves, none 
will defend us; If we yield, we will be more and 
more pressed as we recede; and if we submit, we 
will be trampled under foot. Be assured that 
emancipation Itself would not satisfy these fanat- 
ics; that gained, the next step would be to raise 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 137 

the negroes to a social and political equality with 
the whites; and that being effected, we would soon 
find the present condition of the two races re- 
versed. They and their Northern allies would 
be the masters, and we the slaves; the condition 
of the white race in the British West India islands, 
bad as it was, would be happiness to ours. There 
the mother country is interested in sustaining the 
supremacy of the European race. It Is true that 
the authority of the former master Is destroyed, 
but the African will there still be a slave, not to 
Individuals but to the community, — forced tO' 
labor, not by the authority of the overseer, but by 
the bayonet of the soldiery and the rod of the 
civil magistrate.* 

Surrounded as the slave-holding States are with 
such Imminent perils, I rejoice to think that our 
means of defense are ample. If we shall prove to 
have Intelligence and spirit and to see and apply 
them before It Is too late. All we want Is con- 
cert, to lay aside all party differences, and unite 
with zeal and energy In repelling approaching 
dangers. Let there be concert of action, and we 
shall find ample means of security without resort- 
ing to secession or disunion. I speak with full 
knowledge and a thorough examination of the 
subject, and for one see my way clearly. One 

* By the British Emancipation Act, which went into effect in 1834, 
former slaves were to serve as apprentices under their late masters for 
seven years. 



138 JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 

thing alarms me — the eager pursuit of gain 
which overspreads the land, and which absorbs 
every faculty of the mind and every feeling of the 
heart. Of all passions avarice Is the most blind 
and compromising — the last to see and the first 
to yield to danger. I dare not hope that any- 
thing I can say will arouse the South to a due sense 
of danger; I fear it Is beyond the power of mortal 
voice to awaken It in time from the fatal security 
Into which It has fallen. 



ON THE SLAVERY QUESTION 

DELIVERED IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, 

MARCH 4, 1850. 

I HAVE, Senators, believed from the first that 
the agitation of the subject of slavery would, if 
not prevented by some timely and effective meas- 
ure, end in disunion. Entertaining this opinion, 
I have, on all proper occasions, endeavored to 
call the attention of both the two great parties 
which divide the country to adopt some measure 
to prevent so great a disaster, but without suc- 
cess.. The agitation has been permitted to pro- 
ceed, with almost no attempt to resist it, until it 
has reached a point when it can no longer be dis- 
guised or denied that the Union is in danger. 
You have thus had forced upon you the greatest 
and the gravest question that can ever come 
under your consideration: How can the Union 
be preserved? 

To give a satisfactory answer to this mighty 
question, it is indispensable to have an accurate 
and thorough knowledge of the nature and the 
character of the cause by which the Union is en- 

139 



I40 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

dangered. Without such knowledge it Is Impos- 
sible to pronounce, with any certainty, by what 
measure It can be saved; just as It would be Im- 
possible for a physician to pronounce, In the case 
of some dangerous disease, with any certainty, by 
what remedy the patient could be saved, without 
similar knowledge of the nature and character of 
the cause which produced It. The first question, 
then, presented for consideration. In the Investiga- 
tion I propose to make, In order to obtain such 
knowledge. Is: What Is It that has endangered 
the Union? 

To this question there can be but one answer: 
That the immediate cause Is the almost universal 
discontent which pervades all the States compos- 
ing the southern section of the Union. This 
widely-extended discontent Is not of recent origin. 
It commenced with the agitation of the slavery 
question, and has been Increasing ever since. The 
next question, going one step further back. Is: 
What has caused this widely-diffused and almost 
universal discontent? 

It Is a great mistake to suppose, as is by some, 
that It originated with demagogues, who excited 
the discontent with the intention of aiding their 
personal advancement, or with the disappointed 
ambition of certain politicians, who resorted to It 
as a means of retrieving their fortunes. On the 
contrary, all the great political Influences of the 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 141 

section were arrayed against excitement, and ex- 
erted to the utmost to keep the people quiet. 
The great mass of the people of the South were 
divided, as In the other section. Into Whigs and 
Democrats. The leaders and the presses of both 
parties In the South were very solicitous to pre- 
vent excitement and to preserve quiet; because it 
Was seen that the effects of the former would 
necessarily tend to weaken, If not destroy, the 
political ties which united them with their re- 
spective parties In the other section. Those who 
know the strength of the party ties will readily 
appreciate the Immense force which this cause 
exerted against agitation, and In favor of pre- 
serving quiet. But, great as It was. It was not 
sufficient to prevent the wide-spread discontent 
which now pervades the section. No; some 
cause, far deeper and more powerful than the one 
supposed, must exist, to account for discontent so 
wide and deep. The question then recurs: 
What Is the cause of this discontent? It will be 
found In the belief of the people of the Southern 
States, as prevalent as the discontent Itself, that 
they cannot remain, as things now are, consistently 
with honor and safety. In the Union. The next 
question to be considered is: What has caused 
this belief? 

One of the causes Is, undoubtedly, to be traced 
to the long-continued agitation of the slavery 



142 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

question on the part of the North, and the many 
aggressions which they have made on the rights 
of the South during the time. I will not enumer- 
ate them at present, as it will be done hereafter in 
its proper place. 

There is another lying back of it — with which 
this is intimately connected — that may be re- 
garded as the great and primary cause. This is 
to be found in the fact, that the equilibrium be- 
tween the two sections, in the government as it 
stood when the Constitution was ratified and the 
government put in action, has been destroyed. 
At that time there was nearly a perfect equilib- 
rium between the two, which afforded ample 
means to each to protect itself against the aggres- 
sion of the other; but, as it now stands, one sec- 
tion has the exclusive power of controlling the 
government, which leaves the other without any 
adequate means of protecting itself against its 
encroachment and oppression. To place this 
subject distinctly before you, I have. Senators, 
prepared a brief statistical statement, showing the 
relative weight of the two sections in the govern- 
ment under the first census of 1790, and the last 
census of 1840. 

According to the former, the population of the 
United States, including Vermont, Kentucky, and 
Tennessee, which then were in their incipient con- 
dition of becoming States, but were not actually 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 143 

admitted, amounted to 3,929,827. Of this num- 
ber the Northern States had 1,997,899, and the 
Southern 1,952,072, making a difference of only 
45,827 in favor of the former States. The num- 
ber of States, Including Vermont, Kentucky, and 
Tennessee, were sixteen; of which eight, includ- 
ing Vermont, belonged to the northern section, 
and eight, including Kentucky and Tennessee, to 
the southern, — making an equal division of the 
States between the two sections, under the first 
census. There was a small preponderance In the 
House of Representatives, and In the Electoral 
College, In favor of the northern, owing to the 
fact that, according to the provisions of the Con- 
stitution, In estimating federal numbers five slaves 
count but three ; but It was too small to affect 
sensibly the perfect equilibrium which, with that 
exception, existed at the time. Such was the 
equality of the two sections when the States com- 
posing them agreed to enter into a Federal Union. 
Since then the equilibrium between them has been 
greatly disturbed. 

According to the last census the aggregate 
population of the United States amounted to 
17,063,357, of which the northern section con- 
tained 9,728,920, and the southern 7,334,437, 
making a difference in round numbers, of 
2,400,000. The number of States had Increased 
from sixteen to twenty-six, making an addition 



144 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

of ten States. In the meantime the position of 
Delaware had become doubtful as to which sec- 
tion she properly belonged. Considering her as 
neutral, the Northern States will have thirteen 
and the Southern States twelve, making a differ- 
ence in the Senate of two senators In favor of the 
former. According to the apportionment under 
the census of 1840, there were two hundred and 
twenty-three members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, of which the Northern States had one 
hundred and thirty-five, and the Southern States 
(considering Delaware as neutral) eighty-seven, 
making a difference In favor of the former in the 
House of Representatives of forty-eight. The 
difference in the Senate of two members, added 
to this, gives to the North in the Electoral Col- 
lege, a majority of fifty. Since the census of 
1840, four States have been added to the Union 
— Iowa, Wisconsin, Florida, and Texas. They 
leave the difference in the Senate as It was when 
the census was taken; but add two to the side of 
the North in the House, making the present ma- 
jority In the House in Its favor fifty, and In the 
Electoral College fifty-two. 

The result of the whole Is to give the northern 
section a predominance In every department of 
the government, and thereby concentrate in it the 
two elements which constitute the Federal Gov- 
ernment, — majority of States, and a majority of 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 145 

their population, estimated in federal numbers. 
Whatever section concentrates the two in itself 
possesses the control of the entire government. 

But we are just at the close of the sixth decade, 
and the commencement of the seventh. The cen- 
sus is to be taken this year, which must add greatly 
to the decided preponderance of the North in the 
House of Representatives and in the Electoral 
College. The prospect Is, also, that a great In- 
crease will be added to its present preponderance 
in the Senate, during the period of the decade, by 
the addition of new States. Two territories, 
Oregon and Minnesota, are already In progress, 
and strenuous efforts are making to bring In three 
additional States from the territory recently con- 
quered from Mexico; which, if successful, will- 
add three other States in a short time to the north- 
ern section, making five States; and increasing the 
present number of Its States from fifteen to 
twenty, and of Its senators from thirty to forty. 
On the contrary, there Is not a single territory In 
progress In the southern section, and no certainty 
that any additional State will be added to It dur- 
ing the decade. The prospect then is, that the 
two sections in the Senate, should the effort now 
made to exclude the South from the newly ac- 
quired territories succeed, will stand before the 
end of the decade, twenty Northern States to four- 
teen Southern (considering Delaware as neutral), 



146 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

and forty Northern senators to twenty-eight 
Southern. This great increase of senators, added 
to the great Increase of members of the House of 
Representatives and the Electoral College on the 
part of the North, which must take place under 
the next decade, will effectually and Irretrievably 
destroy the equilibrium which existed when the 
government commenced. 

Had this destruction been the operation of 
time, without the Interference of government, the 
South would have had no reason to complain; but 
such was not the fact. It was caused by the legis- 
lation of this government, which was appointed 
as the common agent of all, and charged with 
the protection of the Interests and security of all. 
The legislation by which It has been effected may 
be classed under three heads. The first is, that 
series of acts by which the South has been excluded 
from the common territory belonging to all the 
States as members of the Federal Union — which 
have had the effect of extending vastly the por- 
tion allotted to the northern section, and restrict- 
ing within narrow limits the portion left the South. 
The next consists In adopting a system of revenue 
and disbursements, by which an undue propor- 
tion of the burden of taxation has been Imposed 
upon the South, and an undue proportion of its 
proceeds appropriated to the North; and the last 
Is a system of political measures, by which the 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 147 

original character of the government has been 
radically changed. I propose to bestow upon 
each of these, in the order they stand, a few re- 
marks, with the view of showing that it is owing 
to the action of this government that the equilib- 
rium between the two sections has been destroyed, 
and the whole powers of the system centered in 
a sectional majority. 

The first of the series of Acts by which the 
South was deprived of its due share of the terri- 
tories, originated with the confederacy which pre- 
ceded the existence of this government. It is to 
be found in the provision of the ordinance of 
1787, Its effect was to exclude the South en- 
tirely from that vast and fertile region which lies 
between the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, now 
embracing five States and one Territory. The 
next of the series is the Missouri compromise, 
which excluded the South from that large portion 
of Louisiana which lies north of 36° 30', except- 
ing what Is included In the State of Missouri. 
The last of the series excluded the South from 
the whole Oregon Territory. All these. In the 
slang of the day, were what are called slave terri- 
tories, and not free soil; that Is, territories be- 
longing to slave-holding powers and open to the 
emigration of masters with their slaves. By 
these several Acts the South was excluded from 
one million two hundred and thirty-eight thou- 



148 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

sand and twenty-five square miles — an extent of 
country considerably exceeding the entire valley 
of the Mississippi. To the South was left the 
portion of the Territory of Louisiana lying south 
of 36° 30', and the portion north of It Included 
in the State of Missouri, with the portion lying 
south of 2^° 30' including the States of Louisiana 
and Arkansas, and the territory lying west of the 
latter, and south of 36° 30', called the Indian 
country. These, with the Territory of Florida, 
now the State, make, in the whole, two hundred 
and eighty-three thousand five hundred and three 
square miles. To this must be added the terri- 
tory acquired with Texas. If the whole should 
be added to the southern section it would make an 
Increase of three hundred and twenty-five thou- 
sand five hundred and twenty, which would make 
the whole left to the South six hundred and nine 
thousand and twenty-three. But a large part of 
Texas Is still in contest between the two sections, 
which leaves it uncertain what will be the real ex- 
tent of the proportion of territory that may be left 
to the South. 

I have not Included the territory recently ac- 
quired by the treaty with Mexico. The North is 
making the most strenuous efforts to appropriate 
the whole to herself, by excluding the South from 
every foot of it. If she should succeed, It will 
add to that from which the South has already 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 149 

been excluded, 526,078 square miles, and would 
Increase the whole which the North has appro- 
priated to herself, to 1,764,023, not including the 
portion that she may succeed In excluding us from 
In Texas. To sum up the whole, the United 
States, since they declared their Independence, 
have acquired 2,373,046 square miles of terri- 
tory, from which the North will have excluded 
the South, If she should succeed in monopolizing 
the newly acquired territories, about three-fourths 
of the whole, leaving to the South but about one- 
fourth. 

Such Is the first and great cause that has de- 
stroyed the equilibrium between the two sections 
In the government. 

The next is the system of revenue and disburse- 
ments which has been adopted by the government. 
It is well known that the government has derived 
Its revenue mainly from duties on Imports. I 
shall not undertake to show that such duties must 
necessarily fall mainly on the exporting States, 
and that the South, as the great exporting portion 
of the Union, has in reality paid vastly more than 
her due proportion of the revenue; because I deem 
It unnecessary, as the subject has on so many occa- 
sions been fully discussed. Nor shall I, for the 
same reason, undertake to show that a far greater 
portion of the revenue has been disbursed at the 
North, than Its due share; and that the joint effect 



I50 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

of these causes has been, to transfer a vast amount 
from South to North, which, under an equal sys- 
tem of revenue and disbursements, would not have 
been lost to her. If to this be added, that many 
of the duties were Imposed, not for revenue, but 
for protection, — that Is, Intended to put money, 
not In the treasury, but directly Into the pockets 
of the manufacturers, — some conception may be 
formed of the Immense amount which. In the long 
course of sixty years, has been transferred from 
South to North. There are no data by which it 
can be estimated with any certainty; but It is safe 
to say that It amounts to hundreds of millions of 
dollars. Under the most moderate estimate, it 
would be sufHcIent to add greatly to the wealth of 
the North, and thus greatly Increase her popula- 
tion by attracting emigration from all quarters to 
that section. 

This, combined with the great primary cause, 
amply explains why the North has acquired a pre- 
ponderance in every department of the govern- 
ment by its disproportionate Increase of popula- 
tion and States. The former, as has been shown, 
has increased, in fifty years, 2,400,000 over that 
of the South. This Increase of population, during 
so long a period, is satisfactorily accounted for, by 
the number of emigrants, and the Increase of their 
descendants, which have been attracted to the 
northern section from Europe and the South, in 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 151 

consequence of the advantages derived from the 
causes assigned. If they had not existed — If the 
South had retained all the capital which had been 
extracted from her by the fiscal action of the gov- 
ernment; and, if It had not been excluded by the 
ordinance of 1787 and the Missouri compromise, 
from the region lying between the Ohio and the 
Mississippi rivers, and between the Mississippi 
and the Rocky Mountains north of 36° 30' — it 
scarcely admits of a doubt, that it would have 
divided the emigration with the North, and by 
retaining her own people, would have at least 
equaled the North in population under the census 
of 1840, and probably under that about to be 
taken. She would also. If she had retained her 
equal rights in those territories, have maintained 
an equality in the number of States with the 
North, and have preserved the equilibrium be- 
tween the two sections that existed at the com- 
mencement of the government. The loss, then, 
of the equilibrium Is to be attributed to the action 
of this government. 

But while these measures were destroying the 
equilibrium between the two sections, the action of 
the government was leading to a radical change 
in Its character, by concentrating all the power of 
the system in itself. The occasion will not per- 
mit me to trace the measures by which this great 
change has been consummated. If it did, it would 



152 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

not be difficult to show that the process commenced 
at an early period of the government; and that It 
proceeded, almost without Interruption, step by 
step, until It virtually absorbed Its entire powers; 
but without going through the whole process to 
establish the fact. It may be done satisfactorily by 
a very short statement. 

That the government claims, and practically 
maintains, the right to decide In the last resort, 
as to the extent of Its powers, will scarcely be 
denied by any one conversant with the political 
history of the country. That It also claims the 
right to resort to force to maintain whatever 
power It claims against all opposition Is equally 
certain. Indeed It Is apparent, from what we 
dally hear, that this has become the prevailing and 
fixed opinion of a great majority of the com- 
munity. Now, I ask, what limitation can possi- 
bly be placed upon the powers of a government 
claiming and exercising such rights? And, If 
none can be, how can the separate governments 
of the States maintain and protect the powers re- 
served to them by the Constitution — or the peo- 
ple of the several States maintain those which are 
reserved to them, and among others, the sover- 
eign powers by which they ordained and estab- 
lished, not only their separate State Constitutions 
and Governments, but also the Constitution and 
Government of the United States? But, If they 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN i53 

have no constitutional means of maintaining them 
against the right claimed by this government, It 
necessarily follows, that they hold them at Its 
pleasure and discretion, and that all the powers 
of the system are In reality concentrated in it. It 
also follows, that the character of the government 
has been changed In consequence, from a federal 
republic, as it originally came from the hands of 
its framers, into a great national consolidated 
democracy. It has indeed, at present, all the 
characteristics of the latter, and not of the for- 
mer, although It still retains Its outward form. 

The result of the whole of those causes com- 
bined Is, that the North has acquired a decided 
ascendency over every department of this govern- 
ment, and through It a control over all the powers 
of the system. A single section governed by the 
will of the numerical majority, has now. In i.^ct, 
the control of the government and the entire pow- 
ers of the system. What was once a constitu- 
tional Federal Republic, Is now converted, in 
reality, into one as absolute as that of the Auto- 
crat of Russia, and as despotic in Its tendency as 
any absolute government that ever existed. 

As, then, the North has the absolute control 
over the government. It is manifest that on all 
questions between it and the South, where there 
Is a diversity of Interests, the Interest of the latter 
will be sacrificed to the former, however oppres- 



154 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

sive the effects may be; as the South possesses no 
means by which It can resist, through the action of 
the government. But If there was no question 
of vital Importance to the South, in reference to 
which there was a diversity of views between the 
two sections, this state of things might be endured 
without the hazard of destruction to the South. 
But such is not the fact. There is a question of 
vital importance to the southern section. In refer- 
ence to which the views and feelings of the two 
sections are as opposite and hostile as they can 
possibly be. 

I refer to the relation between the two races in 
the southern section, which constitutes a vital por- 
tion of her social organization. Every portion 
of the North entertains views and feelings more 
or less hostile to It. Those most opposed and 
hostile, regard It as a sin, and consider themselves 
under the most sacred obligation to use every 
effort to destroy it. Indeed, to the extent that 
they conceive that they have power, they regard 
themselves as implicated in the sin, and responsi- 
ble for not suppressing It by the use of all and 
every means. Those less opposed and hostile, 
regarded it as a crime — an offense against hu- 
manity, as they call It; and, although not so fanat- 
ical, feel themselves bound to use all efforts to 
effect the same object; while those who are least 
opposed and hostile, regard it as a blot and a 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN i55 

stain on the character of what they call the 
Nation, and feel themselves accordingly bound to 
give it no countenance or support. On the con- 
trary, the southern section regards the relation 
as one which cannot be destroyed without sub- 
jecting the two races to the greatest calamity, and 
the section to poverty, desolation, and wretched- 
ness; and accordingly they feel bound, by every 
consideration of interest and safety, to defend it. 

This hostile feeling on the part of the North 
toward the social organization of the South long 
lay dormant, and it only required some cause to 
act on those who felt most intensely that they 
were responsible for its continuance, to call it into 
action. The increasing power of this govern- 
ment, and of the control of the northern section 
over all its departments, furnished the cause. 
It was this which made the impression on the 
minds of many, that there was little or no re- 
straint to prevent the government from doing 
whatever it might choose to do. This was suffi- 
cient of itself to put the most fanatical portion of 
the North in action, for the purpose of destroy- 
ing the existing relation between the two races In 
the South. 

The first organized movement toward It com- 
menced in 1835. Then, for the first time, socie- 
ties were organized, presses established, lecturers 
sent forth to excite the people of the North, and 



156 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

Incendiary publications scattered over the whole 
South, through the mall. The South was 
thoroughly aroused. Meetings were held every- 
where, and resolutions adopted, calling upon the 
North to apply a remedy to arrest the threatened 
evil, and pledging themselves to adopt measures 
for their own protection, if it was not arrested. 
At the meeting of Congress, petitions poured in 
from the North, calling upon Congress to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia, and to pro- 
hibit, what they called, the internal slave trade 
between the States — announcing at the same 
time, that their ultimate object was to abolish 
slavery, not only in the District, but in the States 
and throughout the Union. At this period, the 
number engaged in the agitation was small, and 
possessed little or no personal influence. 

Neither party in Congress had, at that time, 
any sympathy with them or their cause. The 
members of each party presented their petitions 
with great reluctance. Nevertheless, small, and 
contemptible as the party then was, both of the 
great parties of the North dreaded them. They 
felt, that though small, they were organized in 
reference to a subject which had a great and com- 
manding influence over the northern mind. Each 
party, on that account, feared to oppose their peti- 
tions, lest the opposite party should take ad- 
vantage of the one who might do so, by favoring 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 157 

them. The effect was, that both united in insist- 
ing that the petitions should be received, and that 
Congress should take jurisdiction over the sub- 
ject. To justify their course, they took the ex- 
traordinary ground, that Congress was bound to 
receive petitions on every subject, however objec- 
tionable they might be, and whether they had, or 
had not, jurisdiction over the subject. Those 
views prevailed in the House of Representatives, 
and partially in the Senate; and thus the party suc- 
ceeded in their first movements, in gaining what 
they proposed — a position in Congress, from 
which agitation could be extended over the whole 
Union. This was the commencement of the agi- 
tation, which has ever since continued, and which, 
as is now acknowledged, has endangered the 
Union itself. 

As for myself, I believed at that early period, 
if the party who got up the petitions should suc- 
ceed in getting Congress to take jurisdiction, that 
agitation would follow, and that it would in the 
end, if not arrested, destroy the Union. I then 
so expressed myself in debate, and called upon 
both parties to take grounds against assuming 
jurisdiction; but in vain. Had my voice been 
heeded, and had Congress refused to take jurisdic- 
tion, by the united votes of all parties, the agita- 
tion which followed would have been prevented, 
and the fanatical zeal that gave impulse to the 



158 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

agitation, and which has brought us to our present 
perilous condition, would have become extin- 
guished, from the want of fuel to feed the flame. 
That was the time for the North to have shown 
her devotion to the Union; but, unfortunately, 
both of the great parties of that section were so 
Intent on obtaining or retaining party ascendency, 
that all other considerations were overlooked or 
forgotten. 

What has since followed are but natural conse- 
quences. With the success of their first move- 
ment, this small fanatical party began to acquire 
strength; and with that, to become an object of 
courtship to both the great parties. The neces- 
sary consequence was, a further Increase of power, 
and a gradual tainting of the opinions of both the 
other parties with their doctrines, until the Infec- 
tion has extended over both; and the great mass 
of the population of the North, who, whatever 
may be their opinion of the original Abolition 
party, which still preserves Its distinctive organiza- 
tion, hardly ever fail, when It comes to acting, to 
cooperate In carrying out their measures. With 
the Increase of their Influence, they extended the 
sphere of their action. In a short time after the 
commencement of their first movement, they had 
acquired sufficient Influence to Induce the legisla- 
tures of most of the Northern States to pass acts, 
which In effect abrogated the clause of the Const!- 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 159 

tution that provides for the delivery up of fugi- 
tive slaves. Not long after, petitions followed 
to abolish slavery In forts, magazines, and dock- 
yards, and all other places where Congress had 
exclusive power of legislation. This was fol- 
lowed by petitions and resolutions of legislatures 
of the Northern States, and popular meetings, to 
exclude the Southern States from all territories 
acquired, or to be acquired, and to prevent the 
admission of any State hereafter Into the Union, 
which, by Its constitution, does not prohibit slav- 
ery. And Congress Is Invoked to do all this, ex- 
pressly with the view of the final abolition of 
slavery in the States. That has been avowed to 
be the ultimate object from the beginning of the 
agitation until the present time; and yet the great 
body of both parties of the North, with the full 
knowledge of the fact, although disavowing the 
Abolitionists, have cooperated with them In almost 
all their measures. 

Such Is a brief history of the agitation, as far 
as It has yet advanced. Now I ask. Senators, 
what Is there to prevent Its further progress, until 
it fulfills the ultimate end proposed, unless some 
decisive measure should be adopted to prevent It? 
Has any one of the causes, which has added to Its 
Increase from Its original small and contemptible 
beginning until It has attained its present magni- 
tude, diminished In force? Is the original cause 



i6o NOTED SPEECHES OF 

of the movement — that slavery is a sin, and 
ought to be suppressed — weaker now than at the 
commencement? Or Is the Abolition party less 
numerous or Influential, or have they less Influence 
with, or less control over the two great parties of 
the North In elections? Or has the South greater 
means of influencing or controlling the movements 
of this government now, than It had when the agi- 
tation commenced? To all these questions but 
one answer can be given : No, no, no. The very 
reverse is true. Instead of being weaker, all the 
elements In favor of agitation are stronger now 
than they were In 1835, when It first commenced, 
while all the elements of Influence on the part of 
the South are weaker. Unless something decisive 
Is done, I again ask, what is to stop this agitation, 
before the great and final object at which It aims 
— the abolition of slavery in the States — Is con- 
summated? Is it, then, not certain, that If some- 
thing Is not done to arrest It, the South will be 
forced to choose between abolition and secession? 
Indeed, as events are now moving. It will not re- 
quire the South to secede. In order to dissolve the 
Union. Agitation will of Itself effect it, of which 
Its past history furnishes abundant proof — as I 
shall next proceed to show. 

It Is a great mistake to suppose that disunion 
can be effected by a single blow. The cords 
which bound these States together In one com- 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN i6i 

mon Union, are far too numerous and powerful 
for that. Disunion must be the work of time. 
It is only through a long process, and successively, 
that the cords can be snapped, until the whole 
fabric falls asunder. Already the agitation of the 
slavery question has snapped some of the most Im- 
portant, and has greatly weakened all the others, 
as I shall proceed to show. 

The cords that bind the States together are not 
only many, but various In character. Some are 
spiritual or ecclesiastical; some political; others 
social. Some appertain to the benefit conferred 
by the Union, and others to the feeling of duty 
and obligation. 

The strongest of those of a spiritual and ecclesi- 
astical nature, consisted In the unity of the great 
religious denominations, all of which originally 
embraced the whole Union. All these denomina- 
tions, with the exception, perhaps, of the Catholics, 
were organized very much upon the principle of 
our political Institutions. Beginning with smaller 
meetings, corresponding with the political divi- 
sions of the country, their organization terminated 
in one great central assemblage, corresponding 
very much with the character of Congress. At 
these meetings the principal clergymen and lay 
members of the respective denominations from all 
parts of the Union, met to transact business relat- 
ing to their common concerns. It was not con- 



i62 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

fined to what appertained to the doctrines and 
disciphne of the respective denominations, but ex- 
tended to plans for disseminating the Bible — 
establishing missions, distributing tracts — and of 
establishing presses for the publication of tracts, 
newspapers, and periodicals, with a view of dif- 
fusing religious information — and for the sup- 
port of their respective doctrines and creeds. All 
this combined contributed greatly to strengthen the 
bonds of the Union. The ties which held each 
denomination together formed a strong cord to 
hold the whole Union together, but, powerful as 
they were, they have not been able to resist the 
explosive effect of slavery agitation. 

The first of these cords which snapped, under 
its explosive force, was that of the powerful 
Methodist Episcopal Church. The numerous 
and strong ties which held it together, are all 
broken, and its unity is gone. They now form 
separate churches; and, instead of that feeling of 
attachment and devotion to the interests of the 
whole church which was formerly felt, they are 
now arrayed into two hostile bodies, engaged in 
litigation about what was formerly their common 
property. 

The next cord that snapped was that of the 
Baptists — one of the largest and most respect- 
able of the denominations. That of the Presby- 
terian is not entirely snapped, but some of Its 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 163 

strands have given way. That of the Episcopal 
Church Is the only one of the four great Protestant 
denominations which remains unbroken and entire. 

The strongest cord, of a poHtical character, con- 
sists of the many and powerful ties that have held 
together the two great parties which have, with 
some modifications, existed from the beginning of 
the government. They both extended to every 
portion of the Union, and strongly contributed to 
hold all its parts together. But this powerful 
cord has fared no better than the spiritual. It re- 
sisted, for a long time, the explosive tendency of 
the agitation, but has finally snapped under its 
force — if not entirely, In a great measure. Nor 
Is there one of the remaining cords which has not 
been greatly weakened. To this extent the Union 
has already been destroyed by agitation, in the 
only way it can be, by sundering and weakening 
the cords which bind It together. 

If the agitation goes on, the same force, acting 
with Increased intensity, as has been shown, will 
finally snap every cord, when nothing will be left 
to hold the States together except force. But, 
surely, that can, with no propriety of language, 
be called a Union, when the only means by which 
the weaker is held connected with the stronger por- 
tion Is force. It may. Indeed, keep them con- 
nected; but the connection will partake much more 
of the character of subjugation, on the part of the 



i64 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

weaker to the stronger, than the union of free, in- 
dependent States, In one confederation, as they 
stood In the early stages of the government, and 
which only Is worthy of the sacred name of Union. 

Having now. Senators, explained what It is that 
endangers the Union, and traced It to Its cause, 
and explained its nature and character, the ques- 
tion again recurs. How can the Union be saved? 
To this I answer, there is but one way by which it 
can be, and that Is by adopting such measures as 
will satisfy the States belonging to the southern 
section, that they can remain in the Union con- 
sistently with their honor and their "safety. There 
Is, again, only one way by which this can be 
effected, and that Is by removing the causes by 
which this belief has been produced. Do this, and 
discontent will cease, harmony and kind feelings 
between the sections be restored, and every appre- 
hension of danger to the Union be removed. The 
question, then, is. How can this be done? But, 
before I undertake to answer this question, I pro- 
pose to show by what the Union cannot be saved. 

It cannot, then, be saved by eulogies on the 
Union, however splendid or numerous. The cry 
of ^' Union, Union, the glorious Union! " can no 
more prevent disunion than the cry of " Health, 
health, glorious health ! " on the part of the physi- 
cian, can save a patient lying dangerously ill. So 
long as the Union, Instead of being regarded as a 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 165 

protector, Is regarded In the opposite character, 
by not much less than a majority of the States, it 
will be In vain to attempt to conciliate them by 
pronouncing eulogies on It. 

Besides, this cry of Union comes commonly 
from those whom we cannot believe to be sin- 
cere. It usually comes from our assailants. But 
we cannot believe them to be sijicere; for If they 
loved the Union, they would necessarily be de- 
voted to the Constitution. It made the Union, — 
and to destroy the Constitution would be to 
destroy the Union. But the only reliable and 
certain evidence of devotion to the Constitution 
is to abstain, on the one hand, from violating It, 
and to repel, on the other, all attempts to violate 
It. It Is only by faithfully performing these high 
duties that the Constitution can be preserved, and 
with It the Union. 

But how stands the profession of devotion to 
the Union by our assailants, when brought to 
this test? Have they abstained from violating 
the Constitution? Let the many acts passed by 
the Northern States to set aside and annul the 
clause of the Constitution providing for the de- 
livery up of fugitive slaves answer. I cite this, 
not that it Is the only instance (for there are many 
others), but because the violation In this particu- 
lar is too notorious and palpable to be denied. 
Again: Have they stood forth faithfully to 



i66 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

repel violations of the Constitution? Let their 
course In reference to the agitation of the slavery 
question, which was commenced and has been 
carried on for fifteen years, avowedly for the pur- 
pose of abolishing slavery In the States — an 
object all acknowledged to be unconstitutional, — 
answer. Let them show a single instance, during 
this long period, in which they have denounced 
the agitators or their attempts to effect what is 
admitted to be unconstitutional, or a single meas- 
ure which they have brought forward for that 
purpose. How can we, with all these facts be- 
fore us, believe that they are sincere In their pro- 
fession of devotion to the Union, or avoid 
believing their profession is but Intended to In- 
crease the vigor of their assauhs and to weaken 
the force of our resistance? 

Nor can we regard the profession of devotion 
to the Union, on the part of those who are not 
our assailants, as sincere, when they pronounce 
eulogies upon the Union, evidently with the In- 
tent of charging us with disunion, without utter- 
ing one word of denunciation against our assail- 
ants. If friends of the Union, their course 
should be to unite with us in repelling these as- 
saults, and denouncing the authors as enemies of 
the Union. Why they avoid this, and pursue the 
course they do. It is for them to explain. 

Nor can the Union be saved by Invoking the 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 167 

name of the Illustrious Southerner whose mortal 
remains repose on the western bank of the Poto- 
mac. He was one of us, — a slave-holder and a 
planter. We have studied his history, and find 
nothing in it to justify submission to wrong. On 
the contrary, his great fame rests on the solid 
foundation, that, while he was careful to avoid 
doing wrong to others, he was prompt and de- 
cided in repelling wrong. I trust that, in this 
respect, we profited by this example. 

Nor can we find anything In his history to deter 
us from seceding from the Union, should it fail 
to fulfill the objects for which it was instituted, by 
being permanently and hopelessly converted into 
the means of oppressing Instead of protecting us. 
On the contrary, we find much in his example to 
encourage us, should we be forced to the extrem- 
ity of deciding between submission and disunion. 

There existed then, as well as now, a Union — 
between the parent country and her colonies. It 
was a Union that had much to endear it to the 
people of the colonies. Under its protecting and 
superintending care, the colonies were planted 
and grew up and prospered, through a long course 
of years, until they became populous and wealthy. 
Its benefits were not limited to them. Their ex- 
tensive agricultural and other productions, gave 
birth to a flourishing commerce, which richly re- 
warded the parent country for the trouble and 



i68 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

expense of establishing and protecting them. 
Washington was born and grew up to manhood 
under that Union. He acquired his early dis- 
tinction In Its service, and there Is every reason to 
believe that. he was devotedly attached to It. 
But his devotion was a national one. He was 
attached to it, not as an end, but as a means to an 
end. When It failed to fulfill its end, and. In- 
stead of affording protection, was converted Into 
the means of oppressing the colonies, he did not 
hesitate to draw his sword, and head the great 
movement by which that Union was forever 
severed, and the Independence of these States 
established. This was the great and crowning 
glory of his life, which has spread his fame over 
the whole globe, and will transmit It to the latest 
posterity. 

Nor can the plan proposed by the distinguished 
Senator from Kentucky, nor that of the adminis- 
tration, save the Union. I shall pass by, without 
remark, the plan proposed by the Senator. I, 
however, assure the distinguished and able Sena- 
tor, that, in taking this course, no disrespect what- 
ever is Intended to him or to his plan. I have 
adopted It because so many Senators of distin- 
guished abilities, who were present when he de- 
livered his speech, and explained his plan, and 
who were fully capable to do justice to the side 
they support, have replied to him. 



JOHN CALDIVELL CALHOUN 169 

The plan of the administration cannot save 
the Union, because it can have no effect whatever, 
toward satisfying the States composing the south- 
ern section of the Union, that they can, consist- 
ently with safety and honor, remain In the 
Union. . . . 

Having now shown what cannot save the 
Union, I return to the question with which I com- 
menced. How can the Union be saved? There 
Is but one way by which It can with any certainty; 
and that is, by a full and final settlement, on the 
principle of justice, of all the questions at Issue 
between the two sections. The South asks for 
justice, simple justice, and less she ought not to 
take. She has no compromise to offer, but the 
Constitution; and no concession or surrender to 
make. She has already surrendered so much 
that she has little left to surrender. Such a set- 
tlement would go to the root of the evil, and 
remove all cause of disconten't, by- satisfying the 
South that she could remain honorably and safely 
In the Union, and thereby restore the harmony 
and fraternal feelings between the sections, which 
existed anterior to the Missouri agitation. Noth- 
ing else can, with any certainty, finally and for- 
ever settle the question at Issue, terminate agita- 
tion, and save the Union. 

But can this be done? Yes, easily; not by the 
weaker party, for it can, of Itself do nothing, — 



I70 NOTED SPEECHES OF 

not even protect Itself — but by the stronger. 
The North has only to will it to accomplish it 
— to do justice by conceding to the South an 
equal right in the acquired territory, and to do 
her duty by causing the stipulations relative to 
fugitive slaves to be faithfully fulfilled, to cease 
the agitation of the slave question, and to provide 
for the insertion of a provision In the Constitu- 
tion, by an amendment, which will restore to the 
South, In substance, the power she possessed of 
protecting herself, before the equilibrium between 
the sections was destroyed by the action of this 
government. There will be no difficulty in devis- 
ing such a provision — one that will protect the 
South, and which, at the same time, will improve 
and strengthen the government, instead of im- 
pairing and weakening It. 

But will the North agree to this? It is for 
her to answer the question. But, I will say, she 
cannot refuse, if she has half the love for the 
Union which she professes to have, or without 
justly exposing herself to the charge that her love 
of power and aggrandizement is far greater than 
her love of the Union. At all events the respon- 
sibility of saving the Union rests on the North, 
and not on the South. The South cannot save it 
by any act of hers, and the North may save it 
without any sacrifice whatever, unless to do jus- 
tice, and to perform her duties under the Consti- 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 171 

tutlon, should be regarded by her as a sacrifice. 
It Is time, Senators, that there should be an 
open and manly avowal on all sides, as to what Is 
intended to be done. If the question Is not now 
settled, It Is uncertain whether It ever can here- 
after be; and we, as the representatives of the 
States of this Union, regarded as governments, 
should come to a distinct understanding as to our 
respective views. In order to ascertain whether 
the great questions at Issue can be settled or not. 
If you, who represent the stronger portion, can- 
not agree to settle on the broad principle of jus- 
tice and duty, say so; and let the States we both 
represent agree to separate and part in peace. 
If you are unwilling we should part in peace, tell 
us so, and we shall know what to do, when you 
reduce the question to submission or resistance. 
If you remain silent, you will compel us to infer 
by your acts what you intend. In that case, Cali- 
fornia will become the test question. If you 
admit her, under all the difficulties that oppose 
her admission, you compel us to infer that you 
intend to exclude us from the whole of the ac- 
quired territories, with the intention of destroy- 
ing, irretrievably, the equilibrium betw^een the two 
sections. We would be blind not to perceive in 
that case, that your real objects are power and 
aggrandizement, and infatuated, not to act ac- 
cordingly. 



172 JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 

I have now, Senators, done my duty in ex- 
pressing my opinions fully, freely and candidly,- 
on this solemn occasion. In doing so, I have 
been governed by the motives which have gov- 
erned me in all the stages of the agitation of the 
slavery question since Its commencement. I have 
exerted myself, during the whole period, to arrest 
It, with the Intention of saving the Union, If it 
could be done; and If it could not, to save the 
section v/here It has pleased Providence to cast 
my lot, and which I sincerely believe has justice 
and the Constitution on its side. Having faith- 
fully done my duty to the best of my ability, both 
to the Union and my section, throughout this agi- 
tation, I shall have the consolation, let what will 
come, that I am free from all responsibility. 



HENRY CLAY 



HENRY CLAY 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

Henry Clay was born April 12, 1777, in 
Hanover County, Virginia. When a lad he was 
sometimes called the " mill-boy of the Slashes," 
as he was so often seen riding through the 
marshy country to the mill, with a bag of meal 
thrown over the horse's back. 

When Henry was four years old, his father 
died, leaving his mother to care for the large 
family with no support except the meager income 
of a small farm. She was a devoted mother, a 
woman of strong character, and anxious that her 
children ihould have an education. Henry went 
to the little log school-house In the neighborhood, 
working in the fields mornings and nights to help 
support the family. At the age of fourteen he 
was placed as errand-boy in a store at Richmond, 
his mother having married and removed there 
with her family. 

The following year his step-father, who was 
Interested In the boy's desire for learning, secured 
for him a position In the office of the Court of 

175 



176 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

Chancery. When Henry had been with the 
chancellor four years, he decided to study law, 
having gained much legal knowledge in the pre- 
vious years. After some months of hard study 
he was admitted to the bar, and in spite of the 
lack of early opportunities, was determined to 
succeed. In 1797 he went to Lexington, Ken- 
tucky, his parents having previously moved there, 
and soon secured a successful and lucrative prac- 
tice. 

His public life began when he was twenty-two, 
the year that the Kentucky constitution was to be 
remodeled, and he attempted to abohsh slavery 
from the State. He soon became popular and 
was sent to the State legislature, serving at dif- 
ferent periods, in all, seven sessions. 

Mr. Clay filled two unexpired terms In the 
United States Senate, 1806-07, and 1809-11. 
In 181 1 he was elected to the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and was at once chosen Speaker of the 
House. President Madison appointed Clay one 
of the five commissioners to negotiate peace with 
England at Ghent, in the Netherlands. He had 
now become famous and was welcomed home 
with public dinners and much display, and was 
reelected to Congress. 

Though Mr. Clay was not the author of the 
Missouri Compromise of 1821, it was, without a 
doubt, his influence which caused the plan to sue- 




HENRY CLAY 

From an old Print 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 177 

ceed; another service which made him more be- 
loved than ever. On leaving the House in 1825 
he was made Secretary of State by President 
Adams. 

In 1 83 1 he was sent to the United States 
Senate, and during the first term secured 
the passage of a compromise bill — *' Compro- 
mise of 1833 " — giving him for the second time 
the title of " the Great Pacificator." He re- 
mained in the Senate until 1842, and was reelected 
in 1849. His great speech, " the Compromise of 
1850," another endeavor to save the Union, was 
made on February 5 and 6, 1850. The gifted 
orator died in Washington, June 29, 1852, and 
was buried July 10 at Lexington, Kentucky. 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 

DELIVERED IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, 
FEBRUARY 5 AND 6, 185O. 

Mr. President : — Never on any former occa- 
sion have I risen under feelings of such painful 
solicitude. I have seen many periods of great 
anxiety, of peril, and of danger in this country, 
and I have never before risen to address any 
assemblage so oppressed, so appalled, and so 
anxious; and, sir, I hope it will not be out of place 
to do here, what again and again I have done in 
my private chamber, to implore of Him who 
holds the destinies of nations and individuals in 
His hands, to bestow upon our country His bless- 
ings, to calm the violence and rage of party, to 
still passion, to allow reason once more to resume 
its empire. . . . Sir, I have said that I have seen 
other anxious periods in the history of our coun- 
try, and if I were to venture, Mr. President, to 
trace to their original source the cause of all our 
present dangers, difficulties, and distractions, I 
should ascribe it to the violence and intemperance 
of party spirit. ... I know, sir, the jealousies, 

178 



HENRY CLAY > 179 

the fears, the apprehensions which are engendered 
by the existence of that party spirit to which I 
have referred; but If there be In my hearing now, 
in or out of this Capitol, any one who hopes, In 
his'race for honors and elevation, for higher hon- 
ors and higher elevation than that which he now 
occupies, I beg him to believe that I, at least, will 
never jostle him In the pursuit of those honors 
or that elevation. I beg him to be perfectly per- 
suaded that, if my wishes prevail, my name shall 
never be used In competition with his. I beg to 
assure him that when my service Is terminated in 
this body, my mission, so far as respects the public 
affairs of this world and upon this earth, is closed, 
and closed. If my wishes prevail, forever. But, 
sir. It is Impossible for us to be blind to the facts 
which are daily transpiring before us. It Is Im- 
possible for us not to perceive that party spirit 
and future elevation mix more or less In all our 
affairs. In all our deliberations. . . . 

From the beginning of the session to the pres- 
ent time my thoughts have been anxiously directed 
to the object of finding some plan, of proposing 
some mode of accommodation which would once 
more restore the blessings of concord, harmony, 
and peace to this great country. I am not vain 
enough to suppose that I have been successful In 
the accomplishment of this object, but I have 
presented a scheme; and allow me to say to hon- 



i8o NOTED SPEECH OF 

orable Senators that, If they find In that plan any- 
thing that Is defective, if they find in It anything 
that is worthy of acceptance, but Is susceptible of 
Improvement by amendment, it seems to me that 
the true and patriotic course is not to denounce it, 
but to Improve It — not to reject without exami- 
nation any project of accommodation having for 
Its object the restoration of harmony In this coun- 
try, but to look at it to see If it be susceptible of 
elaboration or Improvement, so as to accomplish 
the object which I indulge the hope Is common to 
all and every one of us, to restore peace and quiet, 
and harmony and happiness to this country. 

Sir, when I came to consider this subject, there 
were two or three general purposes which it 
seemed to me to be most desirable. If possible, to 
accomplish. The one was, to settle all the con- 
troverted questions arising out of the subject of 
slavery. It seemed to me to be doing very little 
If we settled one question and left other distract- 
ing questions unadjusted; It seemed to me to be 
doing but little if we stopped one leak only In the 
ship of State, and left other leaks capable of pro- 
ducing danger, If not destruction, to the vessel. 
I therefore turned my attention to every subject 
connected with the Institution of slavery, and out 
of which controverted questions had sprung, to 
see If It were possible or practicable to accommo- 
date and adjust the whole of them. Another 



HENRY CLAY i8i 

principal object which attracted my attention was, 
to endeavor to form such a scheme of accommo- 
dation that neither of the two classes of States 
into which our country is so unhappily divided 
should make any sacrifice of any great principle. 
I believe, sir, the series of resolutions which I 
have had the honor to present to the Senate ac- 
complishes that object. 

Sir, another purpose which I have had in view 
was this: I was aware of the difference of 
opinion prevailing between these two classes of 
States. I was aware that, while one portion 
of the Union was pushing matters, as it seemed to 
me, to the greatest extremity, another portion of 
the Union was pushing them to an opposite, per- 
haps not less dangerous extremity. It appeared 
to me, then, that If any arrangement, any satis- 
factory adjustment could be made of the contro- 
verted questions between the two classes of States, 
that adjustment, that arrangement, could only be 
successful and effectual by extracting from both 
parties some concession — not of principle, not 
of principle at all, but of feeling, of opinion. In 
relation to matters In controversy between them. 
Sir, I believe the resolutions which I have pre- 
pared fulfill that object. I believe, sir, that you 
will find, upon that careful, rational, and atten- 
tive examination of them which I think they de- 
serve, that neither party In some of them makes 



i82 NOTED SPEECH GF 

any concession at all; in others the concessions of 
forbearance are mutual; and in the third place, in 
reference to the slave-holding States, there are 
resolutions making concessions to them by the 
opposite class of States, without any compensation 
whatever being rendered by them to the non- 
slave-holding States. I think every one of these 
characteristics which I have assigned, and the 
measures which I proposed, is susceptible of clear 
and satisfactory demonstration by an attentive 
perusal and critical examination of the resolutions 
themselves. Let us take up the first resolution. 

The first resolution, Mr. President, as you are 
aware, relates to California, and it declares that 
California, with suitable limits, ought to be ad- 
mitted as a member of this Union, without the 
imposition of any restriction either to interdict 
or to introduce slavery within her limits. Well, 
now, is there any concession in this resolution by 
either party to the other? I know that gentle- 
men who come from slave-holding States say the 
North gets all that it desires; but by whom does 
it get it? Does it get it by any action of Con- 
gress? If slavery be interdicted within the limits 
of California, has it been done by Congress — by 
this government? No, sir. That interdiction is 
Imposed by California herself. And has It not 
been the doctrine of all parties that when a State 
Is about to be admitted into the Union, the State 



HENRY CLAY 183 

has a right to decide for itself whether it will or 
will not have slavery within its limits? 

Mr. President, the next resolution in the series 
which I have offered I beg gentlemen candidly 
now to look at. I was aware, perfectly aware, 
of the perseverance with which the Wilmot Pro- 
viso was Insisted upon. I knew that every one 
of the free States In this Union, without excep- 
tion, had by Its legislative body passed resolutions 
Instructing their Senators and requesting their 
Representatives to get that restriction Incorpo- 
rated In any Territorial government which might 
be established under the auspices of Congress. I 
knew hov/ much, and I regretted how much, the 
free States had put their hearts upon the adop- 
tion of this measure. In the second resolution 
I call upon them to waive persisting In It. I ask 
them, for the sake of peace and in the spirit of 
mutual forbearance to other members of the 
Union, to give It up — to no longer Insist upon 
It — to see, as they must see. If their eyes are 
open, the dangers which lie ahead. If they perse- 
vere in Insisting upon It. 

When I called upon them in this resolution to 
do this, was I not bound to offer, for a surrender 
of that favorite principle or measure of theirs, 
some compensation, not as an equivalent by any 
means, but some compensation In the spirit of 



1 84 NOTED SPEECH OF 

mutual forbearance, which, animating one side, 
ought at the same time to actuate the other side? 
Well, sir, what is It that is offered them? It is a 
declaration of what I characterized, and must still 
characterize, with great deference to all those 
who entertain opposite opinions, as two truths, I 
will not say Incontestible, but to me clear, and 
I think they ought to be regarded as indisputable 
truths. What are they? The first is, that by 
law slavery no longer exists in any part of the 
acquisitions made by us from the Republic of 
Mexico; and the other Is, that in our opinion, ac- 
cording to the probabilities of the case, slavery 
never will be Introduced into any portion of the 
territories so acquired from Mexico. . . . 

With respect to the opinion that slavery does 
not exist In the territories ceded to the United 
States by Mexico, I can only refer to the fact o( 
the passage of the law by the Supreme Govern- 
ment of Mexico abolishing It, I think. In 1824; 
and to a subsequent passage of a law by the legis- 
lative body of Mexico, I forget in what year, by 
which they proposed — what It Is true they have 
never yet carried into full effect — compensation 
to the owners of slaves for the property of which 
they were stripped by the act of abolition. I can 
only refer to acquiescence of Mexico in the aboli- 
tion of slavery, from the time of its extinction 
down to the time of the treaty by which we ac- 



HENRY CLAY 185 

quired these countries. . . . The laws of Mexico, 
as they existed at the moment of the cession of 
the ceded territories to this country, remained the 
laws until, and unless, they were altered by that 
new sovereign power which this people and these 
territories came under, In consequence of the 
treaty of cession to the United States. 

I think ... I may leave that part of the sub- 
ject, with two or three observations only upon the 
general power which I think appertains to this 
government on the subject of slavery. 

Sir, before I approach that subject, allow me 
to say that. In my humble judgment, the Institu- 
tion of slavery presents two questions totally dis- 
tinct and resting on entirely different grounds — 
slavery within the States, and slavery without the 
States. Congress, the General Government, has 
no power, under the Constitution of the United 
States, to touch slavery within the States, except 
In three specified particulars in that Instrument: to 
adjust the subject of representation; to Impose 
taxes when a system of direct taxation is made; 
and to perform the duty of surrendering, or caus- 
ing to be delivered up, fugitive slaves that may 
escape from service which they owe In slave 
States, and take refuge In free States. And, sir, 
I am ready to say that If Congress were to attack, 
within the States, the Institution of slavery, for 
the purpose of the overthrow or extinction of 



i86 NOTED SPEECH OF 

slavery, then, Mr. President, my voice would be 
for war; then would be made a case which would 
justify in the sight of God, and in the presence 
of the nations of the earth, resistance on the part 
of the slave States to such an unconstitutional and 
usurped attempt as would be made on the suppo- 
sition which I have stated. 

Then we should be acting in defense of our 
rights, our domiciles, our safety, our lives; and 
then, I think, would be furnished a case in which 
the slave-holding States would be justified, by all 
considerations which pertain to the happiness and 
security of man, to employ every instrument 
which God or nature had placed in their hands to 
resist such an attempt on the part of the free 
States. And then, if unfortunately civil war 
should break out, and we should present to the 
nations of the earth the spectacle of one portion 
of this Union endeavoring to subvert an institu- 
tion in violation of the Constitution and the most 
sacred obligations which can bind men; we should 
present the spectacle in which we should have the 
sympathies, the good wishes, and the desire for 
our success of all men who love justice and truth. 
Far different, I fear, would be our case if un- 
happily Ave should be plunged into civil war — if 
the two parts of this country should be placed in 
a position hostile toward each other — in order 



HENRY CLAY 187 

to carry slavery into the new territories acquired 
from Mexico. ... 

The government has no right to touch the in- 
stitution within the States; but whether she has, 
and to what extent she has the right or not to 
touch it outside of the States, is a question which 
Is debatable, and upon which men may honestly 
and fairly differ, but which, decided however it 
may be decided, furnishes, in my judgment, no 
just occasion for breaking up this happy and 
glorious Union of ours. . . . 

Mr. President, I shall not take up time, of 
which already so much has been consumed, to 
show that, according to the sense of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, or rather accordlnor to 
the sense In which the clause has been interpreted 
for the last fifty years, the clause which confers on 
Congress the power to regulate the Territories 
and other property of the United States conveys 
the authority. . . . 

I said there is another source of power equally 
satisfactory, equally conclusive In my mind, as 
that which relates to the Territories; and that is 
the treaty-making power — the acquiring power. 
Now I put It to gentlemen, is there not at this 
moment a power somewhere existing either to 
admit or exclude slavery from the ceded territory ? 
It Is not an annihilated power. This is ImpossI- 



1 88 NOTED SPEECH OF 

ble. It is a subsisting, actual, existing power; 
and where does it exist? It existed, I presume 
no one will controvert, in Mexico prior to the 
cession of these territories. Mexico could have 
abolished slavery or introduced slavery either in 
California or New Mexico. That must be con- 
ceded. Who will controvert this position? 
Well, Mexico has parted from the territory and 
from the sovereignty over the territory; and to 
whom did she transfer it? She transferred the 
territory and the sovereignty of the territory to 
the Government of the United States. 

The Government of the United States acquires 
in sovereignty and in territory over California 
and New Mexico, all, either in sovereignty or ter- 
ritory, that Mexico held in California or New 
Mexico, by the cession of those territories. Sir, 
dispute that who can. The power exists or it 
does not; no one will contend for its annihilation. 
It existed in Mexico. No one, I think, can deny 
that. Mexico alienates the sovereignty over the 
territory, and her alienee is the Government of the 
United States. The Government of the United 
States, then, possesses all power which Mexico 
possessed over the ceded territories, and the Gov- 
ernment of the United States can do in reference 
to them — within, I admit, certain limits of the 
Constitution — whatever Mexico could have 
done. There are prohibitions upon the power of 



HENRY CLAY 189 

Congress within the Constitution, which prohibi- 
tions, I admit, must apply to Congress whenever 
she legislates, whether for the old States or for 
new territories; but, within those prohibitions, the 
powers of the United States over the ceded terri- 
tories are coextensive and equal to the power of 
Mexico in the ceded territories, prior to the ces- 
sion. 

I pass on from the second resolution to the 
third and fourth, which relate to Texas: and 
allow me to say, Mr. President, that I approach 
the subject with a full knowledge of all its diffi- 
culties; and of all the questions connected with or 
growing out of this institution of slavery which 
Congress is called upon to pass upon and decide, 
there are none so difficult and troublesome as 
those which relate to Texas, because, sir, Texas 
has a question of boundaryito settle, and the ques- 
tion of slavery, or the feelings connected with it, 
run into the question of boundary. The North, 
perhaps, will be anxious to contract Texas within 
the narrowest possible limits, in order to exclude 
all beyond her to make it a free Territory; the 
South, on the contrary, may be anxious to extend 
those sources of Rio Grande, for the purpose of 
creating an additional theater for slavery; and 
thus, to the question of the limits of Texas, and 
the settlement of her boundary, the slavery ques- 



I90 NOTED SPEECH OF 

tlon, with all Its troubles and difficulties, is added, 
meeting us at every step we take. 

There is, sir, a third question, also, adding to 
the difficulty. By the resolution of annexation, 
slavery was Interdicted In all north of 36° 30'; 
but of New Mexico, that portion of It which lies 
north of 36° 30' embraces, I think, about one- 
third of the whole of New Mexico east of the 
Rio Grande; so that you have free and slave 
territory mixed, boundary and slavery mixed 
together, and all these difficulties are to be en- 
countered. And allow me to say, sir, that among 
the considerations which induced me to think it 
was necessary to settle all these questions, was the 
state of things that now exists In New Mexico, 
and the state of things to be apprehended both 
there and In other portions of the territories. 
Why, sir, at this moment there Is a feeling ap- 
proximating to abhorrence on the part of the peo- 
ple of New Mexico at the Idea of any union with 
Texas. 

Sir, the other day my honorable friend who 
represents so well the State of Texas said that 
we had no more right to touch the limits of Texas 
than we had to touch the limits of Kentucky. I 
think that was the illustration he gave us — that 
a State Is one and Indivisible, and that the General 
Government has no right to sever It. I agree 



HENRY CLAY 191 

with him, sir, in that, where the limits are ascer- 
tained and certain, where they are undisputed and 
indisputable. The General Government has no 
right, nor has any other earthly power the right, 
to interfere with the limits of a State whose 
boundaries are thus fixed, thus ascertained, known, 
and recognized. The whole power, at least, to 
interfere with it is voluntary. The extreme case 
may be put — one which I trust in God may never 
happen in this nation — of a conquered nation, 
and of a constitution adapting itself to the state 
of subjugation or conquest to which it has been 
reduced; and giving up whole States, as well as 
parts of States, in order to save from the con- 
quering arms of the invader what remains. I 
say such a power in case of extremity may exist. 
But I admit that, short of such extremity, volun- 
tarily, the General Government has no right to 
separate a State — to take a portion of its terri- 
tory from it, or to regard it otherwise than as 
integral, one and indivisible, and not to be affected 
by any legislation of ours. But, then, I assume 
what does not exist in the case of Texas, and these 
boundaries must be known, ascertained, and in- 
disputable. With regard to Texas, all was open, 
all was unfixed; all is unfixed at this moment, with 
respect to her limits west and north of the 
Nueces. . . . Mr. President, I have said that I 
think the power has been concentrated in the Gov- 



192 NOTED SPEECH OF 

ernment of the United States to fix upon the 
limits of the State of Texas. ... In the resolu- 
tion, what Is proposed? To confine her to the 
Nueces? No, sir. To extend her boundary to 
the mouth of the Rio Grande, and thence up that 
river to the southern limit of New Mexico; and 
thence along that limit to the boundary between 
the United States and Spain, as marked under the 
treaty of 1819. 

Why, sir, here is a vast country. I believe — 
although I have made no estimate about It — that 
it is not inferior in extent of land, of acres, of 
square miles, to what Texas east of the river 
Nueces, extending to the Sabine, had before. 
And who is there can say with truth and justice 
that there Is no reciprocity, nor mutuality, no con- 
cession In this resolution, made to Texas, even in 
reference to the question of boundary alone? 
You give her a vast country, equal, I repeat, in 
extent nearly to what she Indisputably possessed 
before; a country sufficiently large, with her con- 
sent, hereafter to carve out of it some two or 
three additional States when the condition of the 
population may render It expedient to make new 
States. Sir, is there not In this resolution con- 
cession, liberality, justice? But this Is not all that 
we propose to do. The second resolution pro- 
poses to pay off a certain amount of the debt of 
Texas. A blank Is left In the resolution, because 



HENRY CLAY 193 

I have not heretofore been able to ascertain the 
amount. 

• •••■••« 

I pass to the consideration of the next resohi- 
tion in the series which I have had the honor to 
submit, and which relates, if I am not mistaken, 
to this District. 

*' Resolved, That it is inexpedient to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia, while that in- 
stitution continues to exist in the State of Mary- 
land, without the consent of that State, and with- 
out the consent of the people of the District, and 
without just compensation to the owners of slaves 
within the District." 

Mr. President, an objection at the moment was 
made to this resolution, by some honorable Sena- 
tor on the other side of the body, that it did not 
contain an assertion of the unconstitutionality of 
the exercise of the power of abolition. I said 
then, as I have uniformly maintained in this body, 
as I contended for in 1838, and ever have done, 
that the power to abolish slavery within the Dis- 
trict of Columbia has been vested in Congress by 
language too clear and explicit to admit, in my 
judgment, of any rational doubt whatever. 
What, sir, is the language of the Constitution? 
"To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases 
whatever, over such District (not exceeding ten 
miles square) as may, by cession of particular 



194 NOTED SPEECH OF 

States and the acceptance of Congress, become 
the seat of the Government of the United States/' 
Now, sir, Congress, by this grant of power, is In- 
vested with all legislation whatsoever over the 
District. 

Can we conceive of human language more 
broad and comprehensive than that which Invests 
a legislative body with exclusive power. In all cases 
whatsoever, of legislature over a given district of 
territory or country? Let me ask, sir. Is there 
any power to abolish slavery In this District? 
Let me suppose, In addition to what I suggested 
the other day, that slavery had been abolished In 
Maryland and Virginia — let me add to It the 
supposition that It was abolished In all the States 
in the Union; Is there any power then to abolish 
slavery within the District of Columbia, or Is 
slavery planted here to all eternity, without the 
possibility of the exercise of any legislative power 
for Its abolition? It cannot be Invested in Mary- 
land, because the power with which Congress is 
invested is exclusive. Maryland, therefore, is ex- 
cluded, and so all the other States of the Union 
are excluded. It Is here, or it Is nowhere. 

This was the view which I took In 1838, and I 
think there Is nothing in the resolution which 
I offered on that occasion Incompatible with the 
view which I now present, and which the resolu- 
tion contains. While I admitted the power to 



HENRY CLAY 195 

exist in Congress, and exclusiv^ely in Congress, to 
legislate in all cases whatsoever, and consequently 
in the abolition of slavery in this District, if it is 
deemed proper to do so, I admitted on that occa- 
sion, as I contend now, that it is a power which 
Congress cannot, in conscience and good faith, 
exercise while the institution of slavery continues 
within the State of Maryland. . . . 

This resolution requires . . . that slavery shall 
not be abolished within the District of Columbia, 
although Maryland consents, although the people 
of the District of Columbia themselves consent, 
without the third condition of making compensa- 
tion to the owners of the slaves within the Dis- 
trict. Sir, it is immaterial to me upon what basis 
(liis obligation to compensate for the slaves who 
may be hberated by the authority of Congress is 
placed. There is a clause in the Constitution of 
the United States, of the amendments to the Con- 
stitution, which declares that no private property 
shall be taken for public use, without just compen- 
sation being made to the owner of the prop- 
erty. Well, I think, in a just and liberal interpre- 
tation of that clause, we are restrained from taking 
the property of the people of this District, in 
slaves, on consideration of any public policy, or 
for any conceivable or imaginable use of the pub- 
lic without a full and fair compensation to the 
people of this District. . . . 



196 NOTED SPEECH OF 

I know it has been argued that the clause of the 
Constitution which requires compensation for 
property taken by the public, for its use, would 
not apply to the case of the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia, because the property 
is not taken for the use of the public. Literally, 
perhaps. It would not be taken for the use of the 
public; but It would be taken in consideration of a 
policy and purpose adopted by the public, as one 
which it was deemed expedient to carry into full 
effect and operation; and, by a liberal interpreta- 
tion of the clause. It ought to be so far regarded 
as taken for the use of the public, at the instance 
of the public, as to demand compensation to the 
extent of the value of the property. . . . 

The second clause of this resolution [the sixth], 
provides ^' that It Is expedient to prohibit within 
the District the trade In slaves brought Into It 
from States or places beyond the limits of the Dis- 
trict, either to be sold therein as merchandise, or 
to be transported to other markets." 

Well, Mr. President, If the concession be made 
that Congress has the power of legislation, and 
exclusive legislation. In all cases whatsoever, how 
can It be doubted that Congress has authority to 
prohibit what Is called the slave-trade In the Dis- 
trict of Columbia? Sir, my Interpretation of the 
Constitution Is this: that with regard to all parts 
of it which operate upon the States, Congress can 



HENRY CLAY 197 

exercise no power which Is not granted, or which 
Is not a necessary Implication from a granted 
power. That Is the rule for the action of Con- 
gress In relation to Its legislation upon the States, 
but In relation to Its legislation upon this District, 
the reverse. I take It to be the rule that Congress 
has all the power over the District which Is not 
prohibited by some part of the Constitution of the 
United States; In other words, that Congress has 
a power within the District equivalent to, and co- 
extensive with, the power which any State Itself 
possesses within Its own limits. Well, sir, does 
any one doubt the power and the right of any 
slave-holding State In this Union to forbid the In- 
troduction, as merchandise, of slaves within their 
limits? Why, sir, almost every slave-holding 
State In the Union has exercised Its power to pro- 
hibit the Introduction of slaves as merchan- 
dise. ... 

Sir, the power exists; the duty. In my opinion, 
exists ; and there has been no time — as I say, in 
language coincident with that used by the honor- 
able Senator from Alabama — there has been no 
time In my public life when I was not willing to 
concur In the abolition of the slave-trade In this 
District. . . . Why are the feelings of citizens 
here outraged by the scenes exhibited, and the 
corteges which pass along our avenues, of man- 
acled human beings, not collected at all in our own 



198 NOTED SPEECH OF 

neighborhood, but brought from distant parts of 
neighboring States? Why should they be out- 
raged? And who Is there, that has a heart, that 
does not contemplate a spectacle of that kind with 
horror and Indignation? Why should they be 
outraged by a scene so Inexcusable and detestable 
as this? 

Sir, It Is no concession, I repeat, from one class 
of States or from the other. It Is an object In 
which both of them, it seems to me, should heart- 
ily unite, and which the one side as much as the 
other should rejoice In adopting, Inasmuch as It 
lessens one of the causes of inquietude and dissatis- 
faction which are connected with this District. 

The next resolution Is: 

*' That more effectual provision ought to be 
made by law, according to the requirement of the 
Constitution, for the restitution and delivery of 
persons bound to service or labor In any State, 
who may escape into any other State or Territory 
In the Union." 

Now, Mr. President, upon that subject I go 
with him who goes furthest in the interpretation 
of that clause In the Constitution. In my humble 
opinion, sir. It is a requirement by the Constitu- 
tion of the United States which is not limited In 
Its operation to the Congress of the United States, 
but extends to every State In the Union and to the 



HENRY CLAY 199 

officers of every State in the Union; and I go one 
step further : It extends to every man in the Unipn, 
and develops upon them all an obligation to assist 
in the recovery of a fugitive from labor who takes 
refuge in or escapes into one of the free States. 
And, sir, I think I can maintain all this by a fair 
Interpretation of the Constitution. It provides: 

" That no person held to service or labor in one 
State under the laws thereof, escaping Into an- 
other, shall, In consequence of any law or regula- 
tion therein, be discharged from service or labor, 
but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to 
whom such service or labor may be due." 

It will be observed, Mr. President, that this 
clause in the Constitution Is not among the enumer- 
ated powers granted to Congress, for. If that had 
been the case. It might have been urged that Con- 
gress alone could legislate to carry It into effect; 
but It Is one of the general powers or one of the 
general rights secured by this constitutional In- 
strument, and It addresses Itself to all who are 
bound by the Constitution of the United States. 
Now, sir, the officers of the General Government 
are bound to take an oath to support the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. All State officers are 
required by the Constitution to take an oath to 
support the Constitution of the United States; and 
all men who love their country and are obedient 
to Its laws, are bound to assist In the execution of 



200 NOTED SPEECH OF 

those laws, whether they are fundamental or de- 
rivative. I do not say that a private individual is 
bound to make a tour of his State in order to assist 
an owner of a slave to recover his property; but 
I do say, if he is present when the owner of a 
slave is about to assert his rights and endeavor to 
obtain possession of his property, every man pres- 
ent, whether he be an officer of the General Gov- 
ernment or the State government, or a private in- 
dividual, is bound to assist, if men are bound at 
all to assist in the execution of the laws of their 
country. 

Now what is this provision? It Is that such 
fugitive shall be delivered upon claim of the party 
to whom such service or labor may be due. As 
has been already remarked in the course of the 
debate upon the bill upon this subject which is now 
pending, the language used in regard to fugitives 
from criminal offenses and fugitives from labor is 
precisely the same. The fugitive from justice is 
to be delivered up, and to be removed to the State 
having jurisdiction; the fugitive from labor is to 
be delivered up on claim of the party to whom 
such service is due. Well, has it ever been con- 
tended on the part of any State that she is not 
bound to surrender a fugitive from justice, upon 
demand from the State from which he fled? I 
believe not. There have been some exceptions 
to the performance of this duty, but they have not 



HENRY CLAY 201 

denied the general right; and if they have refused 
in any instance to give up the person demanded, 
it has been upon some technical or legal ground, 
not at all questioning the general right to have the 
fugitive surrendered, or the obligation to deliver 
him up as Intended by the Constitution. 

I think, then, Mr. President, that with regard 
to the true interpretation of this provision of the 
Constitution there can be no doubt. It Imposes 
an obligation upon all the States, free or slave- 
holding; it Imposes an obligation upon all officers 
of the Government, State or Federal; and, I will 
add, upon all the people of the United States, 
under particular circumstances, to assist In the sur- 
render and recovery of a fugitive slave from his 
master. There has been some confusion and, I 
think, some misconception, on this subject, In con- 
sequence of a recent decision of the Supreme Court 
of the United States. I think that decision has 
been entirely misapprehended. There Is a vast 
difference between Imposing Impediments and 
affording facilities for the recovery of fugitive 
slaves. . . . 

Mr. President, I do think that that whole class 
of legislation, beginning In the Northern States 
and extending to some of the Western States, by 
which obstructions and Impediments have been 
thrown In the way of the recovery of fugitive 
slaves, is unconstitutional and has originated In a 



202 NOTED SPEECH OF 

spirit which I trust will correct itself when those 
States come calmly to consider the nature and ex- 
tent of their federal obligations. Of all the 
States in this Union, unless it be Virginia, the State 
of which I am a resident suffers most by the escape 
of their slaves to adjoining States. 

I have very little doubt, indeed, that the extent 
of loss to the State of Kentucky, in consequence 
of the escape of her slaves, is greater, at least in 
proportion to the total number of slaves which are 
held within that common wealth, even than in Vir- 
ginia. I know full well, and so does the honor- 
able Senator from Ohio know, that it is at the 
utmost hazard, and insecurity of life itself, that 
a Kentuckian can cross the river and go into the 
interior to take back his fugitive slave to the place 
from whence he fled. Recently an example oc- 
curred even in the city of Cincinnati, in respect to 
one of our most respectable citizens. Not having 
visited Ohio at all, but Covington, on the opposite 
side of the river, a little slave of his escaped over 
to Cincinnati. He pursued it; he found it In the 
house In which It was concealed; he took it out, 
and it was rescued by the violence and force of a 
negro mob from his possession — the police of 
the city standing by, and either unwilling or un- 
able to afford the assistance which was requisite to 
enable him to recover his property. 

Upon this subject I do think that we have just 



HENRY CLAY 203 

and serious cause of complaint against the free 
States. I think they fail In fulfilhng a great obli- 
gation, and the failure Is precisely upon one of 
those subjects which In Its nature Is the most irri- 
tating and Inflaming to those who live In the slave 
States. 

Now, sir, I think it is a mark of no good 
neighborhood, of no kindness, of no courtesy, that 
a man living In a slave State cannot now, with 
any sort of safety, travel In the free States with 
his servants, although he has no purpose whatever 
of stopping there longer than a short time. And 
on this whole subject, sir, how has the legislation 
of the free States altered for the worse within the 
course of the last twenty or thirty years? Why, 
sir, most of those States, until within a period of 
the last twenty or thirty years, had laws for the 
benefit of sojourners, as they were called, passing 
through or abiding for the moment in the free 
States, with their servants. . . . Well, now, sir, 
all these laws In behalf of these sojourners 
through the free States are swept away, except I 
believe in the State of Rhode Island. 

Mr. Dayton — And New Jersey. 

Mr. Clay — Aye, and in New Jersey. . . . 

Then, Mr. President, I think that the existing 
laws upon the subject, for the recovery of fugitive 
slaves, and the restoration and delivering of them 
up to their owners, being found inadequate and 



204 NOTED SPEECH OF 

ineffective, it is incumbent on Congress — and I 
hope hereafter, in a better state of feeling, when 
more harmony and good will prevail among the 
members of this confederacy, it will be regarded 
by the free States themselves as a part of their 
duty also — to assist in allaying this irritating and 
disturbing subject to the peace of our Union; but, 
at all events, whether they do it or not, it is our 
duty to do it. It is our duty to make the law 
more effective, and I shall go with the Senator 
from the South who goes furthest in making penal 
laws and imposing the heaviest sanctions for the 
recovery of fugitive slaves, and the restoration of 
them to their owners. 

Mr. President, upon this part of the subject, 
however, allow me to make an observation or two. 
I do not think the States, as States, ought to be 
responsible for all the misconduct of particular in- 
dividuals within those States. I think that the 
States are only to be held responsible when they 
act in their sovereign capacity. If there are a 
few persons, indiscreet, mad if you choose — 
fanatics if you choose so to call them — who are 
for dissolving this Union, as we know there are 
some at the North, and for dissolving it in conse- 
quence of the connection which exists between the 
free and slave-holding States, I do not think that 
any State in which such madmen as they are to be 
found, ought to be held responsible for the doc- 



HENRY CLAY 205 

trines they propagate, unless the State itself 
adopts those doctrines. 

Mr. President, I have a great deal yet to say, 
and I shall, therefore, pass from the consideration 
of this seventh resolution, with the observation, 
which I believe I have partly made before, that 
the most stringent provision upon this subject 
which can be devised will meet with my hearty 
concurrence and cooperation, in the passage of the 
bill which is under the consideration of the Senate. 
The last resolution declares: 

" That Congress has no power to prohibit or 
obstruct the trade in slaves between the slave- 
holding States; but that the admission or exclu- 
sion of slaves brought from one into another of 
them, depends exclusively upon their own particu- 
lar laws." 

This is a concession, not, I admit, of any real 
constitutional provision, but a concession from the 
North to the South of what is understood, I be- 
lieve, by a great number at the North, to be a 
constitutional provision. If the resolution should 
be adopted, take away the decision of the Supreme 
Court of the United States on this subject, and 
there is a great deal, I know, that might be said 
on both sides, as to the right of Congress to regu- 
late the trade between the States, and, conse- 
quently, the trade in slaves between the States; 



2o6 NOTED SPEECH OF 

but I think the decision of the Supreme Court has 
been founded upon correct principles, and I trust 
It will forever put an end to the question whether 
Congress has or has not the power to regulate the 
Intercourse and trade In slaves between the differ- 
ent States. 

Such, Mr. President, Is the series of resolutions 
which, In an earnest and anxious desire to present 
the olive branch to both parts of this distracted, 
and at the present moment, unhappy country, I 
have thought It my duty to offer. Of all men 
upon earth I am the least attached to any produc- 
tions of my own mind. No man upon earth is 
more ready than I am to surrender anything which 
I have proposed, and to accept in lieu of it any- 
thing that is better; but I put It to the candor of 
honorable Senators on the other side and upon all 
sides of the House, whether their duty will be per- 
formed by simply limiting themselves to objec- 
tions to any one or to all of the series of 
resolutions that I have offered. If my plan of 
peace, and accommodation, and harmony. Is not 
right, present us your plan. Let us see the coun- 
ter project. Let us see how all the questions that 
have arisen out of this unhappy subject of slavery 
can be better settled, more fairly and justly settled 
to all quarters of the Union, than on the plan pro- 
posed in the resolutions which I have offered. 
Present me such a scheme, and I will hall It with 



HENRY CLAY 207 

pleasure, and will accept it without the slightest 
feeling of regret that my own was abandoned. 
Sir, while I was engaged in anxious consideration 
upon this subject, the idea of the Missouri Com- 
promise, as it has been termed, came under my re- 
view, was considered by me, and finally rejected as 
In my judgment less worthy of the common accept- 
ance of both parts of this Union than the project 
which I have offered for your consideration. 

Now, sir, when I came to consider the subject 
and to compare the provisions of the line of 36° 
30' — the Missouri Compromise line — with the 
plan which I propose for the accommodation of 
this question, what said I to myself? Why, sir, 
if I offer the line of 36° 30' interdicting slavery 
north of it, and leaving the question open south 
of that line, I offer that which is illusory to the 
South; I offer that which will deceive them, if 
they suppose that slavery will be introduced south 
of that line. It Is better for them, I said to my- 
self — It Is better for the whole South, that there 
should be non-action on both sides, than that there 
should be action interdicting slavery on one side, 
without action for admission of slavery on the 
other side of the line. Is it not so? What, then, 
is gained by the South, If the Missouri line is ex- 
tended to the Pacific, with an interdiction of 
slavery north of it? Why, sir, one of the very 



2o8 NOTED SPEECH OF 

arguments which have been most often and most 
seriously urged by the South has been this, that we 
do not want you to legislate upon the subject at 
all; you ought not to touch it; you have no power 
over it. I do not concur, as is well known from 
what I have said upon this occasion, in this view 
of the subject. But that is the Southern argu- 
ment. We do not want you to legislate at all on 
the subject of slavery. But if you adopt the Mis- 
souri line and extend it to the Pacific, and interdict 
slavery north of that line, you do legislate upon 
the subject of slavery, and you legislate without a 
corresponding equivalent of legislation on the sub- 
ject south of the line. For, if there be legislation 
interdicting slavery north of the line, the principle 
of equality would require that there should be 
legislation admitting slavery south of the line. 

Sir, I have said that I never could vote for it, 
and I repeat that I never can, and never will vote 
for it; and no earthly power shall ever make me 
vote to plant slavery where slavery does not exist. 
Still, if there be a majority — and there ought to 
be such a majority — for interdicting slavery 
north of the line, there ought to be an equal ma- 
jority — if equality and justice be done to the 
South — to admit slavery south of the line. And 
if there be a majority ready to accomplish both of 
these purposes, though I cannot concur in the 
action, yet I would be one of the last to create any 



HENRY CLAY 209 

disturbance, I would be one of the first to acquiesce 
In such legislation, though It Is contrary to my own 
judgment and my own conscience. I think, then, 
it would be better to keep the whole of these terri- 
tories untouched by any legislation by Congress 
on the subject of slavery, leaving It open, unde- 
cided, without any action of Congress In relation 
to It; that It would be best for the South, and best 
for all the views which the South has, from time 
to time, disclosed to us as correspondent with her 
wishes. . . . 

And, sir, I must take occasion here to say that 
In my opinion there Is no right on the part of any 
one or more of the States to secede from the 
Union. War and dissolution of the Union are 
identical and inevitable, in my opinion, There 
can be a dissolution of the Union only by consent 
or by war. Consent no one can anticipate, from 
any existing state of things. Is likely to be given; 
and war Is the only alternative by which a disso- 
lution could be accomplished. If consent were 
given — if It were possible that we were to be 
separated by one great line — In less than sixty 
days after such consent was given war would 
break out between the slave-holding and non- 
slave-holding portions of this Union — between 
the two Independent parts Into which it would be 
erected in virtue of the act of separation. In less 
than sixty days, I believe, our slaves from Ken- 



2IO NOTED SPEECH OF 

tucky, flocking over in numbers to the other side 
of the river, would be pursued by their owners. 
Our hot and ardent spirits would be restrained by 
no sense of the right which appertains to the Inde- 
pendence of the other side of the river, should 
that be the line of separation. They would pur- 
sue their slaves into the adjacent free States; they 
would be repelled; and the consequence would be 
that, In less than sixty days, war would be blazing 
in every part of this now happy and peaceful land. 
And, sir, how are you going to separate the 
States of this confederacy? In my humble 
opinion, Mr. President, we should begin with at 
least three separate confederacies. There would 
be a confederacy of the North, a confederacy of 
the Southern Atlantic slave-holding States, and a 
confederacy of the valley of the Mississippi. My 
life upon it, that the vast population which has 
already concentrated and will concentrate on the 
head-waters and the tributaries of the Mississippi 
will never give their consent that the mouth of 
that river shall be held subject to the power of any 
foreign State or community whatever. Such, I 
believe, would be the consequences of a dissolu- 
tion of the Union, immediately ensuing; but other 
confederacies would spring up from time to time, 
as dissatisfaction and discontent were disseminated 
throughout the country — the confederacy of the 
lakes, perhaps the confederacy of New England, 



HENRY CLAY 211 

or of the Middle States. Ah, sir, the veil which 
covers these sad and disastrous events that lie be- 
yond it, is too thick to be penetrated or lifted by 
any mortal eye or hand. Mr. President, I am 
directly opposed to any purpose of secession or 
separation. . . . 

Mr. President, I have said, what I solemnly be- 
lieve, that dissolution of the Union and war are 
identical and inevitable; and they are convertible 
terms; and such a war as It would be, following a 
dissolution of the Union/ Sir, we may search the 
pages of history, and none so ferocious, so bloody, 
so Implacable, so exterminating — not even the 
wars of Greece, including those of the Common- 
ers of England and the revolutions of France — 
none, none of them all would rage with such vio- 
lence, or be characterized with such bloodshed 
and enormities as would the war which must suc- 
ceed, if that ever happens, the dissolution of the 
Union. And what would be its termination? 
Standing armies, and navies, to an extent stretch- 
ing the revenues of each portion of the dissevered 
members, would take place. An exterminating 
war would follow — not sir, a war of two or three 
years' duration, but a war of interminable dura- 
tion — and exterminating wars would ensue, until, 
after the struggles and exhaustion of both parties, 
some Philip or Alexander, some Caesar or Napo- 
leon, would arise and cut the Gordian knot, and 



212 NOTED SPEECH OF 

solve the problem of the capacity of man for self- 
government, and crush the liberties of both the 
severed portions of this common empire. Can 
you doubt It? 

Look at all history — consult her pages, ancient 
or modern — look at human nature; look at the 
contest In which you would be engaged In the sup- 
position of war following upon the dissolution of 
the Union, such as I have suggested; and I ask 
you If It Is possible for you to doubt that the final 
disposition of the whole would be some despot 
treading down the liberties of the people — the 
final result would be the extinction of this last and 
glorious light which Is leading all mankind, who 
are gazing upon It, In the hope and anxious ex- 
pectation that the liberty which prevails here will 
sooner or later be diffused throughout the whole 
of the civilized world. Sir, can you lightly con- 
template these consequences? Can you yield 
yourself to the tyranny of passion, amid dangers 
which I have depicted, In colors far too tame, of 
what the result would be If that direful event to 
which I have referred should ever occur? Sir, I 
Implore gentlemen, I adjure them, whether from 
the South or the North, by all that they hold dear 
In this world — by all their love of liberty — by 
all their veneration for their ancestors — by all 
their regard for posterity — by all their gratitude 
to Him who has bestowed on them such unnum- 



HENRY CLAY 213 

bered and countless blessings — by all the duties 
which they owe to mankind — and by all the 
duties which they owe to themselves, to pause, 
solemnly to pause at the edge of the precipice, be- 
fore the fearful and dangerous leap be taken into 
the yawning abyss below, from which none who 
ever take it shall return in safety. 

Finally, Mr. President, and In conclusion, I Im- 
plore, as the best blessing which Heaven can be- 
stow upon, me upon earth, that If the direful event 
of the dissolution of this Union Is to happen, I 
shall not survive to behold the sad and heart- 
rending spectacle. 



